Time's Running Out
by Qille
Summary: Hiccup gets poisoned and only has 12 hours to find a cure. Can he stay out of trouble long enough to be cured? Will it be the poison that gets to Hiccup first, or something else? And why does a violent character from Toothless's past show up? RIB story
1. Chapter 1

_A/N: To really enjoy this story, please read up to at least book 4 in the HTTYD series_

**Time's Running Out**

**Chapter 1**

**Shattered Nightmares**

Hiccup woke up that morning to an earsplitting _crack _as the ice covering the sea broke. The cracking was loud enough to drown out his screams. The sound of the ice had brought back terrible memories...

His screaming was also caused by a nightmare. In the nightmare, _Hiccup had been sprinting through the forest, with Toothless up ahead. Looking down, Hiccup realized 3 things: it was a dream, the forest floor was covered in ice, and he still had his foot._

_Up ahead, Toothless reached a clearing where there was no ice on the ground. He turned back and called for Hiccup to hurry. Suddenly, the ice beneath Hiccup gave way, splitting right under his left foot in the shape of an open dragon mouth. His foot went in and the ice clamped shut._

_Hiccup heard himself cry out in pain. Toothless tried to come help him, but a dark, midnight blue creature that was twice Toothless's size lunged in front of him, blocking his path._

_Hiccup couldn't feel his left foot. His vision was blurring because of the pain. After a minute of struggling, Toothless got past the creature and came running across the ice back towards Hiccup. Hiccup called out to him to go back and save himself, but Toothless wouldn't listen._

_And then the ice broke under them, and they were both falling. Hiccup was screaming because Toothless was falling with him..._

Hiccup took a deep breath and tried to calm himself. He felt sick to his stomach, and his right side, between his hip and ribcage, hurt really bad. He figured he had just slept on it wrong.

Looking around his room, he realized Toothless wasn't there. Hiccup wasn't worried though. For the first five days after the ice cracks, a ton of dragons come out and gather in places in the woods called hotspots. The dragons usually ranged from ordinary to truly eccentric.

Hiccup slipped out of bed as quietly as his metal foot would allow and opened the door to his room. His father, Stoick the Vast, was the deepest sleeper in the archipelago, and his snores could shake snow off the roof. Hiccup didn't need to worry about stealth at the moment.

Hiccup walked into the kitchen, stood there for a minute, then walked out again, realizing he was still a little sick to his stomach, and not in the mood to eat anything.

Hiccup stood outside on the steps. The air was sharp, cold, and crisp. There were lights in the windows of those who Hiccup knew to be light sleepers.

Hiccup looked over at Camicazi's house. She wasn't the deepest sleeper ever, but she wasn't a light sleeper either. However, Hiccup could have sworn he saw a dark figure move in one of the windows.

To pass the time until Toothless returned in the evening, Hiccup decided to go dragon watching, seeing as this time was the best of any to see any new dragons. The sounds of the dragons from the forest were just as tempting.

Hiccup went back inside to prepare for a long day of dragon watching. He got a few canteens of water, his dragon notebook, some food in case he started feeling better, and a small dagger, just in case. He put it all in one of those baskets you wear across your back. He also put his left boot in there.

Stepping outside again, Hiccup realized that it was between 6 and 7 in the morning. There were some patches of snow remaining, and some patches of brown and green grass.

Taking great care to step only on the grass, Hiccup made his way into the forest. Once he was in the forest, however, he remembered that there was another thing to look out for besides the dragons.

Normally, snakes wouldn't be a problem at this time of year, but there was one rogue snake. It's called the White Death, mainly because it doesn't hibernate, and it's the color of snow. That's what makes it so hard to spot. The only way to see it in advance is to see it's eyes, which are black and small and look like little stones.

Unfortunately, stones like that are scattered everywhere, and the White Death likes to hide in large patches of them. So the only time you realize they're there is when they're attacking you.

And even better: they're poisonous! Their poison takes exactly 12 hours to kill. There are certain symptoms, and each takes about an hour. 1- extreme paleness, 2- a dangerously high fever, 3- extreme fatigue, but inability to sleep, 4- headaches and thinner blood, 5- dizziness, 6- pain in places that already hurt, 7- sore throat, tasting and coughing up blood, 8- partial blindness, 9- violent asthma attacks, 10- extreme thirst and dehydration, 11- total blindness, 12- at the exact time 12 hours after you have been bitten, all of the symptoms lift for the last 30 seconds of your life, giving you one last look at the world before the poison stops your heart. There is no known cure.

Hiccup had seen people die this way before, and they were all in such terrifying pain that Hiccup had to go sit in a dark corner in a dark room and try and convince himself that he did not just see that.

Hiccup had two goals for today: find new dragons, and don't get poisoned.

At one he would fail...

**6:55 am**

Hiccup was standing quietly behind a tree on the edge of a hotspot. He had been making a map of them. The hotspots were literally hot spots, places where the sun penetrated the trees and melted the snow. He still hadn't seen any new dragons.

That was when the predator spotted him. Somehow, Hiccup sensed the danger and started to move away from the hotspot. He was half way between two known hotspots when he was attacked.

One second, he was just walking, trying to escape the feeling that he was being followed. The next, sudden pain exploded in his right leg, just above his knee and he was on the ground. Before he could see his attacker, he blacked out.


	2. Chapter 2

**Time's Running Out**

**Chapter 2**

**Found or Lost?**

**7:05 am**

Hiccup was slowly becoming aware of a few dragons standing around him. Apparently, they were at a hotspot that Hiccup didn't know about that was only a few trees away, and they had heard him scream and came to see what happened.

Two of the dragons had humans, so they told the other tow that weren't domesticated not to hurt Hiccup, figuring that another dragon had simply lost it's human.

Word spread like wildfire from hotspot to hotspot that a skinny human with red hair and freckles had been found unconscious.

Just 30 seconds after Hiccup's attack was discovered, the word spread to Toothless's hotspot. His heart dropped as he heard the description. Just 20 seconds later, Toothless made it to the attack scene.

He had to push a few dragons out of the way to get to Hiccup, but once he saw that Hiccup was relatively uninjured (except for the mysterious wound on his right leg), the weight of the world was lifted from Toothless's shoulders.

The first few words, 'skinny human,' had gotten his attention, and his heart rate had picked up pace as he heard the rest of the description. They didn't say what condition he was in, only that he was unconscious. Toothless had expected to arrive to see blood everywhere, Hiccup lying there pale as Death, some of his remaining limbs in nearby trees.

"Is this your human," asked one of the dragons, a deep purple Monstrous Nightmare.

"Yeah, he is," said Toothless.

Hiccup moaned when he heard Toothless's voice, then slowly opened his eyes.

"What happened," he asked to no one in particular.

"Can you speak Dragonese," asked a dragon of a species that Hiccup had never seen before.

"Y-yeah, I can," said Hiccup in flawless Dragonese (well, flawless except for the weak and pained edge to it).

"Okay, well, there's not much to tell, except we heard you scream and we came to see what happened. That's about it. Oh, and we called in some experts to take a loot at that bit on your leg," said the dragon, gesturing to the two small bloody holes in Hiccup's leg.

"Gods, I hope it's not poisonous," muttered Toothless.

"What 'experts' did you call," asked Hiccup. As if to answer his question, a small vex of Vampire Dragons, three total, fluttered down from the branches overhead. Two of them were the size of hummingbirds. The other one was slightly bigger.

The dragon saw Hiccup's quizzical look and said: "Well, they bite plenty of people, so they're familiar with other bites."

The Vampire that was slightly larger than the other two, probably the leader, stepped up.

"Okay, first things first, whose human is this," she asked.

"Mine," said Toothless. Hiccup sat up and leaned against Toothless's leg for support.

"Okay," she said, "so the rest of you can go." The other four dragons grumbled, then reluctantly left. Hiccup noted that one was a Nightmare, another one was a Nadder, but the other two were completely new to him. Ironically, the Nightmare wasn't one of the domesticated dragons.

The Vampire turned back to Hiccup. "Did you see what bit you," she asked.

"No," said Hiccup. "I passed out before I could turn my head."

"Okay, then. I need you to lie back down so I can do a quick check." She fluttered from her perch on Hiccup's knee, and Toothless laid his wing down so Hiccup could lie on it.

"You know you really don't have to stay," said the Vampire to Toothless.

"I _can't _leave him," said Toothless.

The Vampire nodded. "Alright, then. Oh, and you should probably take your foot out of that snow drift," she said to Hiccup. Hiccup pulled his left foot out of the snow, grateful that he had remembered to wear a boot over his prosthetic to try and minimize the squeaking.

And with that, the Vampire began her diagnosis...

**7:10 am**

Immediately, the Vampire could tell that Hiccup had been bitten exactly 10 minutes ago, right at 7 o'clock. She tried to see if she could find out what had bit him by sniffing the wound, but she pulled back, confused.

"Have you been poisoned before this," she asked. She had to stop Hiccup when he started counting on his fingers.

"Okay, so you've been poisoned before. That's really bad."

"Why is that bad... y'know, aside from the fact that he's been _poisoned before_," said Toothless.

"Because poison, even after it's cured, leaves behind a smell that makes it impossible to smell fresh and active poison. So if whatever bit you was poisonous, then I can't smell it."

She saw Toothless and Hiccup's anxious looks and quickly said, "I didn't say that it _was _poisonous, I just said I couldn't smell it."

"What if it was," asked Toothless quietly.

"Well, if it was poisonous, then there's not really anything we can do. The poisonous dragons that bite at this time of year don't have any cures."

"So what you're saying is if I _was _poisoned, then I'm gonna die," said Hiccup in a very quiet voice. The Vampire didn't respond.

Instead, she quietly said: "Hold still, I need to check something."

She started to walk up to Hiccup's head, but she accidentally stepped on Hiccup's side, right on the spot that had been hurting him this morning. She was small, but Hiccup felt it hard.

Hiccup immediately gave out a cry of pain and curled up in a ball. The Vampire hovered above him in midair. Toothless glared at the Vampire.

"Toothless... it's not... her fault. I... I've been sore there... since I... woke up," moaned Hiccup, pausing to grind his teeth to keep from screaming.

Toothless relaxed a little, but continued glaring at the Vampire.

Eventually, Hiccup slowly uncurled and laid back down.

"You said that the dragons that bite at this time don't have a cure yet?" asked Hiccup.

"Yeah. You get bit, you're dead," said the Vampire.

"Well, if we knew what it was that bit me, and if it was poisonous, then I'm sure Toothless and I could find a cure."

"What makes you so sure," she asked.

"Well, I've been poisoned by some of the most poisonous dragons _ever_, and I'm still here."

"Like what?"

"Let's see, there's the Vorpent, Strangulator, Piffleworm, Sea Dragon, some serpent dragon with barbs whose name I still don't know! I've been stabbed bit, burnt, shredded, paralyzed, gotten hypothermia, nearly drowned, broke almost every bone in my body; I've had my _rib _yanked out by a Dagger Claw, and I've even had my freaking foot burnt off! You name it, we've done it!" Hiccup had gotten worked up and had sat up again.

The Vampire was silent for a minute, her jaw in the snow, before finally saying: "Now I see why you had to count on your fingers. Wait a second, did you just say that you've had your foot _burnt off_?"

In response, Hiccup kicked off his left boot and let the Vampire see his prosthetic leg. Toothless winced and Hiccup pulled his boot back on.

"We've been through too much together," continued Hiccup. "I can't die! I can't leave him now!"

Hiccup was aggravated for some reason, and he stood up way too fast. Just before he blacked out, he managed to say four words: "can't leave him now..." before collapsing on the ground.

_A/N: If you review, then I'll post the next chapter. I already have the whole story finished and I'm on chapter 5 in the sequel. R&R =_)


	3. Chapter 3

_A/N: Thanks for all the reviews! 64Maddness: Camicazi is awesome, isn't she. Future Aviator: I can see where you're coming from with the descriptions, but have patience my friend. The one of the two new dragons make an appearance later in the story with a more familiar character, and they play a very important role in the sequel. Annabeth The Unicorn: thank you. EmporerIndy: Thank you, and here's the next chapter! _

**Time's Running Out**

**Chapter 3**

**Dragons Aren't Cowards**

**8:30 am**

Hiccup was slowly regaining consciousness. He saw Toothless looking down on him, extremely worried.

"Oh, thank the Gods you're okay," said Toothless, clearly relieved that Hiccup had woken up. Hiccup was now aware that he was lying on one of Toothless's wings while the other one covered him up like a warm blanket.

"Is passing out right after being bitten a symptom of poisoning," Toothless asked the Vampire Dragon.

The Vampire shook her black scaly head, no. "He just stood up too fast, that's all," she said before going back to talking with the other two from her vex. Toothless had always thought the Vampires were weird. They were the only dragon that Toothless had ever heard of that sucked blood, had black scales on their faces and heads, brown fur on their bodies, and a long thin dragon tail with tiny black spokes. Toothless also noticed that the Vampire had an incredibly tiny pair of horns between it's large ears. Strange little creatures.

Hiccup coughed, and Toothless turned his attention back to his rider.

"Toothless," moaned Hiccup, feeling very weak and lethargic now that all the fight had gone out of him.

"Yeah," said Toothless in a soothing voice, clearly not wanting Hiccup to get aggravated again.

"Why did you say you were _happy I was okay_? Did it look like I wasn't okay or... what?"

Toothless sighed. "Well, you were doing fine until about 20 minutes ago. Then you... y-you just got _ungodly _pale, but I saw your chest still moving. I thought you had just died and your breathing was just my imagination. I thought-" His last sentence was barely audible. "I thought I had lost you again..."

Even though he spoke in barely a whisper, the Vampire, with her bat ears, still heard him. "Again?"

"Oh yeah," said Hiccup weakly, "I forgot to mention that I've died before. I was poisoned, which seems to be happening a lot lately. Toothless was able to get the cure to me fast enough, and I started breathing and bleeding again." Hiccup gave a small laugh, then winced as the laugh turned into a convulsive cough that stung his side. Toothless winced because he hated to see Hiccup in pain.

It took a moment for Hiccup to regain his voice, but he did. And when he did, he weakly laid back against Toothless and said: "Hey Toothless?"

"You okay?'

"Sure. Um, I don't think I was bitten by a dragon."

"Really? Why," asked the Vampire. "And what do you think it _was _that bit you?"

"I-I think it was a snake."

"Why would it be a snake," asked the Vampire. "Snakes don't even come out when it's cold."

"There is one..." said Hiccup, his heart hammering against his ribcage.

"A-anyways, how do you know it was a snake," demanded the Vampire. She hated how desperate she sounded.

"Two reasons. First is that I saw a track over there where I was attacked." Hiccup gestured to a 2-inch-thick rut in the snow; a snake track. 

"The second reason is because I was attacked from behind, which means it was a coward. Dragons aren't cowards. The only time they attack from behind is when they're fighting another bigger, more dangerous dragon. And if I could choose what the best thing about dragons are, it would be that they have no fear, _unlike some other reptiles I can mention_."

The Vampire sighed, not wanting to believe Hiccup due to the high toxicity level of the poison. "Those are some... good... reasons..."

"So is it poisonous," asked Toothless, voicing the question everyone had on their mind.

"It's poison is so deadly that..." Hiccup's eyes widened as he realized how much trouble he was in.

"... that even dragon tears or dragon blood can't heal it..."

The truth was finally becoming too much for Hiccup to stand. He gave a choked sob and quickly wrapped his arms around Toothless's neck, pressing his face into Toothless's shoulder. He hung on to Toothless as if his life depended on it, because it kinda did.

Toothless lowered his head protectively over Hiccup's shoulder, wrapping his wings around Hiccup in a dragon hug. The wings ere more for comforting Hiccup; there was nothing Toothless could do to protect Hiccup from what was already inside him, killing him, stopping his heart forever.

Toothless had to use every ounce of self-control that he had to keep from bursting into tears. Because he knew what was going to happen.

Hiccup was going to die today.

_A/N: Guess who shows up in chapter 5? That's right! It's Camicazi! She might be a little bit OOC, so I warned you. You know the drill. R&R and nobody gets hurt! (not really, but please review) Yes this chapter was kinda short, and the next one might be short too. But don't worry. I'll try and update again after I finish my homework... Grr. _


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: This chapter's kinda short. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that the blood or tears of a dragon can usually heal any wound or cure any sickness (and that goes for poison too). Thanks for the reviews!_

**Time's Running Out**

**Chapter 4**

**Splitting and Symptoms**

**9:30 am**

Hiccup stayed that way, not moving, for a solid 30 minutes. Even the vex had the respect to bow their heads. Toothless noticed that Hiccup had stopped violently shaking, but there were still tremors shaking his thin frame. Toothless also noticed that Hiccup's fever seemed to be rising...

Finally, Hiccup stopped shaking and lifted his sad, pale face to look up at Toothless. Though he tried to hide it, the pain that Hiccup was feeling was showing through his glassy eyes.

Slowly, Toothless was getting angrier; not at Hiccup, or the Vampires, but at himself, and mainly the snake. Hiccup hadn't done anything to aggravate it, but it had _still_ attacked him! He was only 14, turning 15 next month, way too young to die. And now some stupid _land eel with a poison gland _was gonna end his life after everything they had been through!

_No, _thought Toothless. _I won't let Hiccup die._

"That's it," whispered Toothless to himself.

"What," asked Hiccup in a hoarse voice. He had resumed his position, blanketed between Toothless's wings.

"We're gonna split up," said Toothless in a monotonous voice.

Hiccup stifled a gasp. "You're a crazy dragon! Why would we split up? What good would come out of _that _situation?"

"I can take you back to the village, then go from hotspot to hotspot and look for another cure for the..."

"White Death."

"Right, another cure for the White Death besides _actual _death. I can take you back to Camicazi's house. I'm sure she can help make some of the symptoms easier to handle... Speaking of which, what exactly _are _the symptoms for the White Death's poison?"

"Well, there's a new symptom each hour for the remaining 12 hours in _my _life," explained Hiccup grimly.

Toothless just looked at Hiccup's pale face for a few seconds before instantly knowing what the next symptom was.

"Hiccup, is the next symptom a high fever?"

"Does it show," asked Hiccup weakly. Without waiting for a response, Hiccup put the back of his hand to his forehead, then quickly pulled it away, the back of his hand turning a little red due to the sudden exposure to the intense heat.

That was when Hiccup noticed how pale his hands were. He could only imagine how pale his face was.

Hiccup sighed. "I've looked worse, right Toothless," asked Hiccup.

Toothless shook his head, no. "The only time you've been paler was when you were dead, and the only time your fever was ever this high was when you were dying of Vorpentitis."

Hiccup ran a hand through his hair, pushing it out of his eyes. "This is so bad," he muttered.

Eventually, Hiccup had managed to gather up the strength and willpower to slowly stand up. He was a little wobbly at first, but he slowly became balanced again. As soon as he could stand on his own through the fever, he turned to Toothless. "I want to come with you and help you look for a cure."

"No," deadpanned Toothless. "I mean _look at you_. You can barely stand up on your own!"

"What about all the bad things that happen when we get separated?"

Before Hiccup could go into details that Toothless really wanted to forget (including some gruesome poisonings and maulings that had happened when Toothless wasn't there), Toothless countered Hiccup by saying: "Well, you're gonna be with Camicazi, and she's good at making sure _you don't hurt yourself_!"

The Vampires stopped looking sleepy (they _were _nocturnal after all) and watched the spat like a tennis match, heads following the words.

"Come on, Toothless, you know-" Hiccup took a step forward, but the stress finally caught up to him and his knees gave out. Luckily, Toothless caught him.

All the fight seemed to have left Hiccup as he weakly said: "You know what, I haven't seen Camicazi in a while..."

_A/N: See. I told you it was short. Don't worry. I don't have volleyball practice or homework tonight, so expect another chapter within half an hour (maybe). R&R and you get a virtual cookie! And another chapter! And in the next chapter is (drum roll, please) ze Great Camicazi!_ _Warning: she may be a little OOC because I kinda gave her somewhat of a split personality. You'll see. _


	5. Chapter 5

_A/N: ENTER CAMICAZI!_

**Time's Running Out**

**Chapter 5**

**Another Option?**

**10:05 am**

After the vex departed for their cave, and Hiccup and Toothless thanked them for their help, Hiccup and Toothless set out for the village, about a 30 minute walk and a 5 minute flight. Toothless figured that Hiccup was too sick for flying, so they walked.

In fact, Hiccup was almost too sick to _walk_.Hiccup tried walking at first, but he kept stumbling his eyes half closed as fatigue started to set in.

After just 5 minutes, Toothless told Hiccup to get up on his back. Hiccup obliged, and Toothless took off at a smooth fast-walk. He got a little bit faster and faster until he was running.

It was about 10:20 when they made it back to the edge of the forest. Hiccup slipped down off of Toothless and walked forward a little, testing his legs.

Luckily, there was no one between Camicazi's house and the edge of the forest, even though there were some people out and about.

Hiccup was praying that Camicazi would be awake. His prayers were about to be answered.

Camicazi burst out the door, did a face-plant, then tumbled down the slope, ending up right in front of Hiccup and Toothless, her feet never touching the ground the whole way down.

Normally, Camicazi would have popped right up, brushed the snow and grass off her, then said: "What's my score?" But today (after she brushed herself off), after just one glance at Hiccup, leaning against Toothless for support, she switched personalities and turned serious.

"C'mon Toothless. Help me bring him inside," said Camicazi urgently.

"N-no r-really guys... I'm f-f-fine," stuttered Hiccup weakly, not even convincing himself.

"Yeah, and how many times have you said _that _before something really bad, painful, and bloody happens," asked Camicazi.

"She has a point," said Toothless.

"Thank you," muttered Hiccup sarcastically.

**10:25 am**

"Okay, Toothless, bring him in here," said Camicazi. She walked into a room right next to the front door, which must have been a spare bedroom or something.

Toothless helped Hiccup limp over and sit down on the bed. Camicazi already had some bandages in her hand, and she wrapped them tightly over the bite.

She finished quickly and told Hiccup to lie down. If there was a way to pass out without losing consciousness, then that is exactly what happened to Hiccup.

Hiccup must have faded into some delirium caused by the dangerous fever and exhaustion. He had just crumpled on the bed, lying in an awkward position with his arms and legs sprawled at uncomfortable looking angles. His eyes were open, but they were so glassy that it was hard to see the forest green color. Camicazi, with Toothless's help, adjusted Hiccup so that he was lying the right way in the bed in a normal position; the blanket pulled up to his chin.

Glassy-eyed and unresponsive, Hiccup lay staring at the ceiling. He had started to moan when Camicazi finally found the right medicine and managed to get it into him.

Hiccup relaxed and took a deep, shuddering breath, his eyes fluttering shut. Toothless, who had been practically hyperventilating the whole time, finally took a shaky semi-deep breath.

Hiccup still hadn't come back around by 10:40. Toothless was worried. The next symptoms should be starting up soon.

Camicazi had a cold rag and was laying it across Hiccup's forehead to try to bring his fever down some, when Hiccup gave a low moan and slowly opened his eyes. They were no longer glassy, but they still showed signs of a deadly and dangerously high fever.

Toothless just about palled out. He was both happy and scared; happy because Hiccup was okay and it was just the fever that had paralyzed him, and scared because thee were only the first and supposedly least painful symptoms. It just encouraged him even more to go find a cure.

Hiccup's eyes slowly focused on Toothless and Camicazi. He was still shaking. Before he could say anything else, Hiccup started violently coughing into his fist. When he pulled his hand away, it was red with blood.

"I-is coughing up blood a symptom," asked Toothless nervously.

"Yeah, but not for this hour," moaned Hiccup.

Hiccup turned to Camicazi and said: "I don't think it was my fever that just did that."

"What exactly just _happened_," asked Camicazi.

"I don't really know. All I remember is hearing you tell me to lay down, then my side started hurting right here-" Hiccup pointed to the right side of his stomach, right in the same spot that had been hurting him all morning, "-then after that, I couldn't control my arms or legs or... anything. I-I was paralyzed and I couldn't even do anything to stop my side from hurting."

"Y'know, I have a friend who's a Healer now. She told me about this weird and deadly disease that sounds a little bit like what's happening to you, y'know, with your side hurting and all," said Camicazi. "That's one of the reasons it's deadly. The symptoms are easy to confuse with food poisoning or sleeping the wrong way. You don't know until it's too late."

"Oh, I know _all_ about screwing up symptoms," said Hiccup, thinking of his little Vorpentitis adventure.

Camicazi took a deep breath, then got back on track. She replaced the wet rag on Hiccup's forehead with a new cold one (the other rag had heated up the second it made contact with his skin).

Hiccup was extremely tired now, but Toothless came over to him.

"I'm gonna go and start looking," said Toothless.

Hiccup was going to say something to make Toothless stay a little longer, because he hated being separated, but his fever sent a wave of dizziness over him again before he could say anything. After a few seconds, it passed, and Hiccup just moaned: "P-please find it..."

Toothless smiled and gave Hiccup a quick lick on the cheek. "Don't worry. I will."

"Eww, dragon spit," joked Hiccup, trying to lighten the mood. Toothless gave a quick laugh too. However, as Toothless turned to go, Hiccup noticed Camicazi, and how she kept glancing nervously out the window.

"Camicazi, you okay," asked Hiccup. Toothless turned to look at Camicazi too.

"Yeah," said Camicazi a little distractedly. "It's just that I haven't seen Stormfly all day. She wasn't here when I woke up."

"Oh, I saw her at the last hotspot I was in," said Toothless.

Camicazi looked to Hiccup for translation.

"He said he saw her in the last hotspot he was in."

"Oh, okay. If you see her again, can you tell her I need her? Immediately," said Camicazi.

"Sure," said Toothless, nodding so she would understand. Toothless turned to Hiccup once more, and before rushing out the door, he said: "Stay strong, little brother." And with that, he left.

Hiccup hoped he would return soon enough...

_A/N: Read and review. Just so you know, I have my stories already on my iPod, but I can't get them from my iPod to the computer, so I have to rewrite them using my iPod as reference. It kinda takes a little time. Please READ AND REVIEW SO YOU CAN GET THE NEXT CHAPTER! thank you_


	6. Chapter 6

_A/N: took me forever to write this chapter... kinda... Well, it's a long one... (and thanks for all the reviews. Virtual cookies for everyone!)_

**Time's Running Out**

**Chapter 6**

**Through the Medicine**

**10:50 am**

Hiccup's symptoms were getting worse. At one point after Toothless had left, Hiccup had tried to fall asleep, and he did. But only for about 30 seconds before he woke up screaming. He had an awful nightmare, but he couldn't really remember what it was about. All he remembered was seeing everything as being red, but only because there had been blood pouring into his eyes.

When Hiccup had woken up with a strangled scream, drenched in a cold sweat, and impossibly paler, Camicazi had given him some medicine that would have knocked him out cold under normal circumstances, but his fever must have burned it off, so all it did was make him a little dizzy.

About 10 minutes later, Stormfly arrived, her Mood Scales pale blue with worry. Camicazi thought the medicine had worked on Hiccup because he hadn't moved or opened his eyes in a while, and she didn't know that a really high fever can burn off some medicine, so she didn't really bother to whisper to Stormfly.

Standing outside the doorway, they started talking; Stormfly talking in Norse instead of Dragonese.

"Toothless told me Hiccup got bitten by a snake," Hiccup heard Stormfly say.

"Yeah, and it's _really _poisonous," said Camicazi. "I _can't_ stress that enough."

There was a moment of silence before Hiccup heard Camicazi say: "Toothless is out there now, going from hotspot to hotspot looking for another cure."

"What's the first cure?"

"...Death."

Hiccup slowly and cautiously opened his eyes. Both Camicazi and Stormfly were just outside the door to the room, just out of sight. He gently sat up, ignoring the jabbing pain in his side. Almost completely silent,he slipped out of the bed and onto the floor. Hiccup was surprised that he hadn't passed out yet.

There was a quiet chatter from above. Hiccup looked up and saw two Terrors perched on a rafter. He made a mental note to ask Camicazi why they were up there.

Camicazi and Stormfly had resumed their conversation, and Hiccup flattened himself against the wall right next to the door, listening.

"You can't do that, Camicazi, and you know I can't," exclaimed Stormfly.

"Stormfly, I've seen you track a mosquito from two _islands _away! One snake should be easy."

"But I still don't understand why you want me to kill it and bring it back. And I always thought if would be Toothless who would be the one to avenge Hiccup if he died."

"It's not about revenge, and we are going to make _sure _Hiccup doesn't die!"

"Then why do you want me to kill the snake?"

"I need its poison."

Now both Stormfly _and _Hiccup were confused. Stormfly asked the question on Hiccup's mind.

"Why do you need the poison? Wouldn't more poison just kill more people?"

"Not in the way _I'm _planning to use it."

"Which is..."

"Do experiments. Find out what things, if any, can cure the poison. That's why I need the snake. I need the venom!"

"Well, then in that case, I would need you to come with me. Face the facts, Camicazi, I don't have any hands to kill the snake with, and if I bite it, I'm dead. If I use fire, no poison. I _need_ your help!"

"Stormfly, you know I can't leave Hiccup when he's like this! These are only the first symptoms of the worst! He can't make it without me here..." At her last statement, Camicazi's voice had dropped to a whisper.

"Well, what are we gonna do," asked Stormfly, her voice also dropping to a whisper.

"Take me with you," said Hiccup, stepping out from behind the doorway.

Once Camicazi got her heart rate back under control, she muttered a rude 4-letter word and said: "No way, Hiccup. I can _not_ let you come! Look at you! You've probably been standing for about 2 minutes and you already look ready to pass out!"

"Well, if you don't take me, then you have to stay here, you _can't _get the poison, you _can't_ find a cure, and you _can't_ save me! And if you take me, you can keep a good eye on me."

Camicazi sighed. "What about your symptoms?"

Hiccup shrugged. "The next one's only headaches. I can handle those."

After a few minutes of relentlessly hitting her head against the wall and thinking: _"Why are boys so stubborn and stupid," _Camicazi sighed, and reluctantly agreed to let Hiccup come. In fact, she was so anxious to get out there and kill the killer that she would have burned down the front door just to get out there and save her... friend. They were just friends... right?

**11:25 am**

Camicazi had packed up another basket full of stuff, along with Hiccup's basket. She had mainly put a bunch of bottles with clear (or not) liquid and weird labels into the basket. Hiccup assumed it was some type of medicines. Along with that, she packed a few bandages, some canteens filled with water, her sword, a small knife, and a large empty vile that would probably hold the poison.

Camicazi had taken Stormfly's saddle off the night before, but instead of putting the regular one back on now, she put on a strange, long saddle. It was about 5 feet long and it had 4 straps that looked a little bit like seat belts. The first 2 were near the top middle, spaced about a foot apart. The second and third ones were about a foot and a half apart, the third and fourth also a foot. The part at the very top near Stormfly's head was slightly elevated with padding, kinda like a pillow.

To Hiccup, it looked like a saddle stretcher. Hiccup had been on twice after a dragon incident of some sort, but he was always unconscious. He wondered if this was a saddle stretcher, and if it was, what Camicazi would need it for.

Finally, they were ready to go. More people were outside on the other side of town, but luckily, there were no people on the forest side.

They made it to the edge of the trees quickly, Stormfly carrying both Hiccup and Camicazi's baskets. Hiccup had offered to carry his, but Camicazi had taken it right out of his pale, shaking hands and hooked it on to Stormfly's saddle.

About 5 minutes after the village had disappeared from sight, they were forced to stop. Right after getting through the treeline, Hiccup's headaches had started, but he didn't tell Camicazi. They were mild, but they still hurt and he started stumbling. Camicazi saw him getting paler and asked him if he wanted to stop. By that time, they were only 3 minutes in.

Hiccup said no, and that he could keep going, but he finally called for them to stop about 2 minutes later. Hiccup dizzily leaned against a tree, his breathing shaky. Camicazi was sure that if his hands weren't clenched onto the tree to stop him from falling over, then they would have gone right up to his head in pain.

Camicazi sighed. "I _told you_ it was a bad idea for you to come. Do you want to go back now?"

Hiccup shuddered, but Camicazi didn't know if it was his fever, the cold, the mysterious pain in his side, or the poison taking its toll that made him shiver.

"N-no. I'm f-fine," said Hiccup, trying to convince himself more than anything.

Hiccup let go of the tree, but stumbled forward and grabbed onto a large boulder.

"Hiccup, I _really _think we should get you back now," said Camicazi.

"I'm _fine_," moaned Hiccup. "I'm just giving this nice c-cold rock a hug. Good rock." The last two sentences were sarcastic, but the sarcasm was a little hard to detect under the fever.

"Okay, you seriously need some pills. You've gone delusional," said Camicazi.

"I'm fine," muttered Hiccup, shaking his head.

"Okay, then just turn around and face Stormfly so she can get the snake's scent."

Hiccup slowly let go of the rock and turned to face Stormfly. Camicazi noticed he was leaning against it now.

Stormfly barely had to move her head before saying: "Okay, I've got it. The poison's actually spread all throughout your body a few times over, so it's not as strong, but it's still pretty clear."

Hiccup wondered how Stormfly could smell the poison through the other poison residue and the Vampire couldn't, but his thoughts were interrupted by a very worried Camicazi.

"Hiccup are you sure you're okay? You really don't look too steady right now," said Camicazi nervously.

"I-I'm really _okay_," said Hiccup, now holding on to a bare tree branch that was hanging down. "It's just the headaches making me dizzy." He let go of the branch and took a few test steps. "See? I'm _fine_. It's just a phase; it'll pass."

Hiccup took one more step, his legs gave out, and he collapsed into the snow. Instantly, he was curled up in a ball, his hands clamped onto his head, trying to stop the pain. His breathing was ragged and extremely labored, almost as if he were having an asthma attack. There were violent tremors racking his entire body, and he was paler than ever, which is really saying something. The fever was higher than before, and there was a pool of blood forming near his head.

Camicazi was right next to him the second he hit the ground.

"Hiccup, where are you bleeding from," she asked in a somewhat frantic voice. In response, Hiccup weakly moved his arm. There was a small cut, maybe an inch long, halfway between his wrist and elbow, but it was bleeding heavily. Camicazi pushed his sleeve back and risked using one of her bandages to wrap it up. Once there was some pressure on it, it stopped bleeding as bad. Hiccup muttered something about trying to grab the tree branch again, but just cutting his arm.

Hiccup had his teeth clenched to keep himself from screaming, so Camicazi couldn't get any medicine into him. All she could do was sit next to him and try to comfort him.

"It's okay, Hiccup. In a little while, it'll all stop, all the headaches and bleeding," said Camicazi in a soothing voice.

"J-j-just h-headaches... N-not b-b-bleeding," moaned Hiccup through gritted teeth. "Some s-symptoms c-carry..." After that, he faded back into moaning through the pain.

After a few more minutes of moaning, Hiccup finally faded into restless unconsciousness, relaxing a little. It was only then that Camicazi was able to get a couple drops of what she called knock-out medicine into his mouth. After that, he went totally limp.

"What happened? Is he gonna be okay," asked Stormfly as she bent down as low as she could to look at Hiccup. Her Mood Scales were an even lighter shade of blue as her concern increased.

"I think he's gonna be fine... as long as we can find a cure."

With that, Camicazi gently lifted Hiccup onto the saddle stretcher, surprised at how light he was. She figured it was either from his blood loss, his malnourishment, or her adrenaline that let her easily carry him and strap him in to the stretcher.

It was about **11:30 **now, so they had some time before Hiccup's next symptom started, and Camicazi was sure he could survive dizziness.

As they walked farther into the forest, Hiccup moaned again. The headache that hit him this time must have been a lot worse, because Hiccup was feeling the pain through the medicine.

As the hour wore on, Hiccup's headaches were becoming fewer and farther between, and they were losing intensity. It was near **12:10** when the final headache hit, then there were no more. The headaches were finished, but what was to come would be _so_ much worse...

_A/N: Sorry for not updating before I said I would. My mom hogged the computer. It is now 3:40, eastern standard time, so I'm only 40 minutes late at updating. I'll try to update again tonight, but I have homework and volleyball, so don't get your hopes up. If just a few more people agree, then I'll put Sig in where I had planned her to go in. All you have to do is say: "Yes, put Sig in," at the end of your review. If 4 more people say they want her, then I'll put her in. Thanks for all the great reviews. Special thanks to EmporerIndy, Annabeth The Unicorn, 64maddness, CrimsonMoon14, and Future Aviator. Next chapter will be up tomorrow, maybe today if I'm lucky. R&R! _


	7. Chapter 7

_A/N: Lot's of hurt in this chapter. May seem kinda pointless, but don't worry. I will try and tie all loose ends... at the end..._

**Time's Running Out**

**Chapter 7**

**Multiple Killers**

**12:20 pm**

Hiccup was slowly waking up again. Camicazi heard him cough as she walked along side Stormfly.

Hiccup was glad that Camicazi had strapped him in tightly, because he was sure he couldn't even _see_ in a straight line.

"Camicazi, w-why are we still in the forest," asked Hiccup.

"Because we need to find that cure," responded Camicazi. "I know the symptoms get worse as time goes on, and you just got _floored_ by one of the first, early-stage symptoms. I think that speaks for itself."

Hiccup had no response. She was right, of course. Hiccup had felt like he had a boulder dropped on his head when the first headache hit. This symptom, dizziness, was supposed to be the last symptom that wasn't very bad. But after that... all Hiccup could do was pray.

"I've got another question," whispered Hiccup.

"Go ahead."

"Why were there 2 Terrors up in your rafters?"

"I usually use those little guys to heat up the beds in the winter. Nothing is worse than being sick in a cold bed."

"I'm not sick... just dying."

"I didn't really need to use them for you because your fever already did the job."

"O-kaaay..."

Hiccup relaxed in the saddle, trying to enjoy his last painless moments. Although it _was_ a little irritating to watch the green and white tree canopy doing cartwheels above him.

As he lay there, he closed his eyes and thought about his nightmare. He now remembered seeing a part of the forest through the blood. Something emerged from the bushes, but he couldn't quite make it out, thanks to the blood in his eyes and the fading light of the early-setting winter sun. All he knew was that it looked to be midnight blue, twice the size of Toothless, and it had big evil yellow eyes. Suddenly, the creature, that for some reason looked familiar, lunged at him, and the last thing he had seen were its teeth before he had woken up.

Camicazi must have though Hiccup fell asleep again, because she started whispering to Stormfly.

"I really hope Hiccup pulls through this. F-for Toothless's sake."

"What do you mean," asked Stormfly, her Mood Scales turning orange with curiosity.

"I mean: I've _seen_ Toothless after an attack. He always looks so _scared_, like Hiccup's gonna die no matter what we do. This one time, I think he might have even been thinking about suicide."

"_When did you see THAT_?"

"It was about a day after Hiccup got his rib yanked out by that Dagger Claw, before Hiccup got released from the hospital. I saw Toothless sitting on the edge of a cliff, looking out into the water. He kept tensing to jump, but then stopped, like he though better of it. I know that if Hiccup dies now, Toothless is gonna do everything in his power to follow him."

"That would be awful," whispered Stormfly, her Mood Scales changing back to pale blue.

"I know. So let's make sure we find that cure. It might save Hiccup's life, and it might also save Toothless's life."

Hiccup had had no idea about Toothless's suicidal attempts before this, but with this new information, he began to forget about what pains lie ahead and focus on what was happening _now_.

Toothless thought he needed to save Hiccup when, really, Hiccup was the one who needed to save Toothless.

And with that, Hiccup began to think about his death wish.

**12:40 pm**

Hiccup was in no way prepared for what would happen next.

The pain came out of nowhere. It felt like someone had just hit him in the stomach (on the right side) with a sledgehammer. All the breath was practically knocked out of him, and it felt like his side was violently cramping up.

The straps on the saddle stretcher stopped Hiccup from curling up, and the sudden intensity of the pain seemed to completely cut off his voice, so he couldn't even cry out. All he could do was make a strangled gasping noise before his voice shut down completely.

Luckily, Camicazi heard him. As she undid the straps, she quickly took in Hiccup's condition. If he could get any paler, then he would have. His face was contorted in pain, covered in a cold sweat yet burning up with a fever. His entire body was rigid, and there were violent tremors running throughout his entire body, shaking his thin frame like a leaf in a hurricane. His breathing was rapid and forced, almost like there was a heavy weight on his chest, preventing him from breathing. All in all, Hiccup was in a _very _bad condition.

The second Camicazi undid the last strap, Hiccup immediately curled up in a ball so fast that he almost fell off of Stormfly. Camicazi lifted him up easily (well, he _did _only weigh about as much as a 4-year-old, or a medium-sized ax), and gently lowered him to the ground.

Hiccup lay on his side. He was hyperventilating for a few minutes before his breathing finally started to even out. But suddenly, Hiccup almost convulsively straightened out and fell over on his back. His eyes were closed and he was grinding his teeth, his fevers sending more tremors through him.

Camicazi didn't want to try to get him to take any medicine at the moment (she was afraid it would just come right back up), so she just sat by his head, stroking his hair from his eyes. She had pulled a rag out of her basket and filled it with snow, pressing it to his forehead to try and break his fever. It was all she could do for now.

Just when Camicazi thought Hiccup was going to finally calm down some and open his eyes, he started to moan. A few seconds later, he quickly rolled over onto his other side and puked. There was a lot of blood mixed in.

Hiccup fell back onto his back, panting and shivering. Camicazi quickly kicked some snow over the blood and vomit and turned back to Hiccup, trying not to panic.

_What _was happening to him, she wondered. It couldn't be the symptoms; dizziness doesn't end for 15 more minutes, when the pain that Hiccup was feeling now was supposed to start. _So what was wrong with Hiccup?_

That was when she remembered the weird disease that her friend had told her about, the one with the easily confused symptoms. But she would have to wait until Hiccup regained consciousness to check.

She only had to wait about 5 minutes.

Hiccup finally moaned, then his eyelids fluttered open. He smiled up at Camicazi.

"What did I miss?" he asked weakly, trying to ease the tension. In fact, the tension was so thick that you could probably cut it with a sword.

"A lot," said Camicazi. "Okay, now I need you to tell me exactly where you were hurting just a few minutes ago."

"Still hurts... just not as bad," muttered Hiccup, pointing to the same spot he had pointed to earlier back at Camicazi's house.

"Oh boy..." muttered Camicazi. "Okay, when you woke up, did your entire side hurt, or did it feel like you were gonna puke, or did it feel like you weren't in the mood for eating anything?"

"Spot on," moaned Hiccup miserably.

Camicazi sighed, then gently placed her hand on the spot that was hurting him. Hiccup hissed in pain, grinding his teeth and flinching away from her hand, the pain showing across his face. Camicazi would have known how bad it was even if Hiccup hadn't flinched away or shown any pain. It just didn't feel... _right at all_

This was a very big problem. If the poison didn't get Hiccup first, then this mysterious disease would. Hiccup knew it too.

Toothless had been right: Hiccup was going to die today, no matter what...

_A/N: Don't you just love cliffies? I only like them when I'm the one writing them. Muahahaha! So, just from the symptoms, can anyone guess what the mysterious disease is that Hiccup has? Write your guess in the reviews. And yes, it is a real disease. If you're stumped, just think of the symptoms and ignore the poison symptoms. I will reveal who guessed correctly in a few chapters. In case you were wondering, there will be a total of 19 chapters. I'm writing chapter 6 of the sequel now. On my iPod. _


	8. Chapter 8

_A/N: I think it's only fair to wait and say who guessed the mysterious disease correctly, because some people still might want to guess. I'm not saying anyone guessed it yet, but I'm also not saying someone didn't guess it. I'll put the winners (not that it's a contest or anything) PenNames in the authors notes of the chapter that reveals what actually happened. Please don't freak out on me. Sorry for rambling. On with the story!_

**Time's Running Out**

**Chapter 8**

**She **_**Knows**_**?**

**1:20 pm**

The mysterious pain had disappeared as quickly as it had come. Hiccup was strapped onto the saddle again and they were back on the trail of the snake. Hiccup had turned down Camicazi's offer of a knock-out drug, saying for her to save it until they _really_ needed it.

Now, only three of the straps were secure: the ones across his legs and the ones across his shoulders. The strap across his stomach and ribcage was left extremely loose.

Hiccup knew that this hour would be one of the worst in his entire life. There would be a replay of what just happened about half an hour ago.

The thing about the symptoms were that they always started right on time, but for a while, Hiccup wouldn't be able to feel them. For example: the headaches. The second that hour started, the headaches had started, but they had been so minor that Hiccup couldn't even feel them. That was kinda what was happening now.

Instead of a slow incline into pain, there was what felt like a sudden burst of heat, his fever spiking at a dangerous level. Hiccup didn't really notice except for a few tremors in his hands. But then came the _real_ pain.

"Uh oh," muttered Hiccup.

Camicazi looked up at him. "What? Does your snake bite hurt, or your side?"

"No," murmured Hiccup, shocked at where the first pain had hit. "It's my foot..."

"Which foot," asked Stormfly.

"Left," replied Hiccup. He immediately tried to cover himself. "Uh- it's not like I... twisted it or something. Maybe it's from the... uh..." Hiccup didn't tell them what was really going on because he still thought Camicazi didn't know about his prosthetic foot (seeing as he was unconscious when she found out). But she knew.

"Why does your foot hurt," asked Stormfly, who actually _didn't _know about Hiccup's prosthetic.

Camicazi answered before Hiccup could. "It's from something called Phantom Pain."

Hiccup's eyes widened and he got impossibly paler. So that's it then. Camicazi knew about his foot. She knew that he was a cripple. Hiccup knew that she knew because he knew from experience _exactly_ what Phantom Pain was: pain from a limb that had been lost or amputated.

"Yeah... I guess you could... call it that," mumbled Hiccup. But he was _really _thinking: _HOW DID SHE FIND OUT? I CAN'T BELIEVE SHE KNOWS! HOW LONG HAS SHE KNOWN! _Stuff like that.

Before Hiccup had time to question anything else, the symptom really picked up speed. One by one, each and every scar from rogue dragon attacks and knife accidents started to feel like it was burning. It was a completely alien feeling.

"This is so weird," muttered Hiccup.

"What is it? Is your side hurting again," asked Camicazi, not wanting a repeat of what had happened earlier.

"N-no, but all my dragon attack scars feel like they're... burning. It's not uncomfortable, but it's-... okay, yep, that just got painful." Hiccup's hand was at his ribcage, right over the gap where the missing rib should have been. There was a thin sheet of cold sweat on his face.

Camicazi was sure that either his snake bite or his side would start hurting again, so she reached into her basket, looking for the right bottle... She asked Hiccup: "What about the-"

"_The snake bite!_" gasped Hiccup, a look of intense pain crossing his face, which was getting paler by the second.

Camicazi finally found what she was looking for. She pulled out another clear bottle (how she kept all those medicines straight was anyone's guess) and poured about four drops into a mostly empty canteen of water and gave it to Hiccup.

"Hurry up and drink that before the pain gets worse," said Camicazi quickly, knowing that this was the very last of the knock-out medicine that she had brought. Hiccup didn't fight; instead, he just poured everything that was left in the canteen into his mouth, and before he even had time to hand the canteen back to Camicazi, the medicine knocked him out cold. But he could still feel the burning.

**2:05 pm**

Hiccup was slowly waking up as the forty minutes worth of knock-out medicine finally wore off. He was aware that he was bumping along something, then he realized that that "something" was Stormfly, and she was running after something. She wasn't as smooth of a runner as Toothless though.

Suddenly, she stopped cold. Hiccup couldn't hear Camicazi. He figured it was important to stay quiet, so he refrained himself from moaning, all the bouncing making his side flare up.

Suddenly, there was a _hiss_, a loud _thunk_, a sharp _crack_, and Camicazi shouted: "YES!"

Hiccup undid the strap around his shoulders and slowly sat up, hissing in pain as his side throbbed.

"Camicazi, w...what happened," he asked in a hoarse, tired voice.

"We killed it!," exclaimed Camicazi as she danced by. "See?" She pointed over to a patch of snow and small rocks. The snow was red, and there was a strange shell on the ground that looked to have been cracked open. It took Hiccup a minute, but he finally saw the snake. _Dead_.

Hiccup carefully undid the last straps around his legs and slowly slid off of Stormfly's back. He stood over the dead snake. His killer. Now he understood the phrase: "_If I go down, I'm taking you down with me_..."

Camicazi finally calmed down enough to think straight. She calmly picked up the head of the snake, seeing as she had cut it in half right in the middle, and carefully opened it's mouth. She squeezed all of the poison out of it's poison glands and into the empty vile. She quickly capped it, then put it in her basket for safe-keeping.

Hiccup coughed. "What was that," he asked, pointing to the shell.

"That, my friend, was the snake's egg. The White Death only lays a single egg, then dies, so this is _breaking the cycle! _There is only one single White Death in the forest at a time on a single island, and I think we just saved a lot of lives by killing this little guy."

Hiccup was about to congratulate her and Stormfly, but a violent bout of coughing stopped him. When he finally stopped, he looked up to see Camicazi looking worried.

"So... what now," asked Hiccup weakly.

"Now, we go back to the village, experiment, and find a cure."

"Sounds good, but shouldn't we tell Toothless first?"

"Yeah, we should, but I don't know how. He must be _miles_ from here."

"Actually, I know how to get a message to him. We just need to get to a..." Hiccup slowly faded mid-sentence as he looked around.

"I know this place."

"How do you know this place? Every clearing looks the same to me," said Camicazi.

"This was the place where I got attacked this morning!"

"How do you know?"

"There are some things that I am absolutely sure about, and this is one of them."

"So... what did you say you need?"

Hiccup coughed again, but this time, he spit out some blood once he stopped. "We need to get to a hotspot, and I know _exactly_ where one is."

_A/N: Okay, so in the next chapter, you meet three of the four dragons that found Hiccup. You meet all of them except the Nadder, who went back to her master. You know the drill. I thrive on reviews. R&R AND NOBODY GETS HURT! By the way, does anyone else want to answer this question: Where did Hiccup see the dark blue creature with the yellow eyes before? So far, he's seen it twice. Just another warning: nightmares are prophetic. One of my upcoming stories will probably be called How to Read a Nightmare's Story. Sound cool? One last thing: in this story, there are a lot of situations that I like to call RIB situations. RIB means Really Impossibly Bad. So, I'll warn you if it's a RIB chapter._


	9. Chapter 9

_A/N: Just remember this: two of the three dragons are NOT domesticated, and don't have names. All three of these dragons play a very important role in the sequel. Also, in this chapter, Hiccup and Camicazi kinda remind me of a married couple because of a little argument. I'll try and add some fluff. Warning: Hiccup does something stupid._

**Time's Running Out**

**Chapter 9**

**Back and Forth**

**2:30 pm**

Hiccup was glad that the hotspot wasn't completely deserted. There were only three dragons left in there, though. They were the three dragons that had found Hiccup earlier, after he was attacked (excluding the Nadder, which had flown off). Now that Hiccup could see them, he _really _looked at the two new species.

The first one that caught his eye was the dragon standing next to the purple Monstrous Nightmare. It was a deep emerald green dragon, a little bit bigger than Toothless. It had a flat, broad head with short, stumpy horns and red-orange eyes. It's wings were wide, stretching all the way from the base of the dragon's skull to it's hind legs. Hiccup noticed that the wings were kinda shaped like a parachute. Though they weren't extended, Hiccup could see that it had large, sail-like fins on its tail. Hiccup guessed that this dragon could fly for extremely long distances, seeing as it wouldn't have to flap its wings almost at all, just using its parachute-shaped wings to catch lift from thermals.

Hiccup turned his eyes to the other dragon. If it had been summer time or night time, then this one would have definitely caught his eye. This dragon was almost as large as the Monstrous Nightmare. It's neck was extremely skinny and long. Hiccup could tell that it was female, even though he had yet to hear her speak, by her erect posture, sitting side-saddle with her head held high and her shoulders back. Female dragons were usually the most proud of themselves. She had deep purple eyes and a slender body and tail. But what amazed Hiccup the most were her scales. They were a light blue color, and what's more, they were slightly glowing. This dragon looked like a beam of moonlight.

Hiccup was shaken out of his fascination when he tasted blood in his mouth. His plan was to enter the hotspot silently and unnoticed, but that plan was kicked down the stairs the second he set foot in the clearing.

All three dragons' heads whipped around at the same time, all three dragons staring right at Hiccup. It was then that the purple Nightmare recognized Hiccup and smiled.

"Snakebait!" it shouted, bounding over to Hiccup, standing right in front of him, and staring down at him. Hiccup almost fell backwards. The other two dragons relaxed and came over to Hiccup.

"How ya' doing, kid," asked the female dragon.

"Um... fine..." said Hiccup distractedly, staring at the dragon's mesmerizing scales.

"Oh, where are my manners? My name's Luna. I'm a Moonshade Dragon, just in case you were wondering. These two idiot," she said, gesturing to the two dragons next to her, "don't have names, though. They don't have humans."

"Hey, I was born free," said the Monstrous Nightmare in a high-pitch, undignified voice, "and I plan to stay that way for a while!"

"Well, I don't," said the emerald dragon. "I wanna find a human, because I want a name. Drift isn't gonna cut it for me anymore."

"Drift," asked Hiccup. "What breed of dragon _are _you?"

"I'm a Drifter Dragon. Just about every single Drifter who doesn't have a human is nicknamed _Drift_. I _really _hate that."

"Y'know, there are still some people in my village who are looking for a dragon. I bet you could find one," said Hiccup.

Right then, Camicazi cleared her throat and Hiccup remembered why they were here in the first place.

Stormfly went up to Luna and complemented her scales. She and Luna went over to the other side of the clearing to talk, and Drift meandered over towards them. That left Hiccup and Camicazi alone with the purple Nightmare.

"Um... I-I need a favor," said Hiccup. The Nightmare nodded. "I need your help spreading the word around that I'm looking for a Night Fury that has green eyes, black scales, a prosthetic tail fin, and goes by the name of Toothless. Say his human's looking for him."

"Oh, sure, no problem," said the Nightmare energetically. With that, he called a little Terror that was hanging out near the treeline over and whispered something in its ear. A few seconds later, it nodded, then zoomed away into the trees.

"There. Now in about... 10 minutes, that news will have spread to every hotspot on the island of Berk. I also said to just go back to the village when he got the message. Is that okay?"

"Perfect," said Hiccup.

"Cool. Oh, and I also said to come to this hotspot first, just in case he was closer to this hotspot than the village," said the Nightmare.

Just at that time, Stormfly came over, after leaving Luna and Drift to talk. She had heard what the Nightmare had said, so she asked: "So, what are we gonna do while we wait for Toothless?"

At the exact same time, Camicazi said: "Go back," while Hiccup said: "Stay here."

Camicazi whirled around and stared at Hiccup as if he were crazy.

"Hiccup, we need to get back to the village _now!_ We have the venom, so now we can find the cure. We _need _to cure you!"

"Well then, you and Stormfly go back and find a cur, and I'll stay here until Toothless comes. He's gonna come here before going to the village anyways, and when he comes, we'll fly back and you can cure me," said Hiccup.

"There is _no way _I'm gonna leave you out here all alone! Your symptoms are just gonna get worse, and we don't know how long it could take for Toothless to get back here! Remember, he can't fly alone! It could take hours, and by then it might be too late!"

At this point, Stormfly whispered to the Nightmare (who was watching the argument like a tennis match): "Hey, I saw some really cool dirt over there. Let's go check it out." The Nightmare nodded and Stormfly led him away.

"Well, if Toothless hasn't shown up by like... 5, then I'll walk back to the village! Just remember, you're wasting time talking to me when you could be finding a _cure!_ And it will only take five minutes to get back to the village by flying."

Camicazi grabbed Hiccup's shoulders. "You're too sick to fly! And we need to cure you as fast as possible, because the poison's not the only thing killing you, and you need to start recovering from the poison _soon,_ because if you're still this weak when you need the surgery, you might not make it! _Don't let me lose you!_"

At that inappropriate moment, Hiccup's side started hurting again. He tried to hide it, but it was too painful to hide easily. Camicazi immediately knew that Hiccup was in pain again because he had cut off the beginning of a sentence and clamped his mouth shut.

The sudden pain disappeared, taking all of Hiccup's fight with it. Suddenly, he realized something.

"Camicazi, who ever said anything about surgery?"

Now it was Camicazi's turn to look pale and clamp her mouth shut for a minute. She pulled her hands away from Hiccup's shoulders.

"_What's wrong with me_," whispered Hiccup as he grabbed Camicazi's shoulders, suddenly scared of what had been killing him before the poison.

Finally, Camicazi sighed and gently took Hiccup's ice cold hands in her warm ones. She started talking again, also in a whisper.

"I don't know the exact details, because I've only ever seen it happen twice before. I was actually there for both of the surgeries, as an assistant to one of the Healers that's taken care of you before. Her name's Sig. Anyways, the first time I saw it, it was a lady. The medication had absolutely _no_ effect on her whatsoever. She just stayed awake during the entire thing and _watched_. No pain. I think she just got up and left after about two hours of being monitored."

"Wow," said Hiccup, surprised (and a little embarrassed) at how strong some people were, while he convulsed on the ground every time his side started hurting. He wondered what they actually _did_ during the surgery. "What about the other one?"

"The second time was awful," said Camicazi quietly. "I was hanging out, talking with Sig, when a few other Healers came running in, carrying in a boy about our age now. For more reasons than one, you remind me of him. Now that I think about it, you two looked a lot alike; he had red hair and a lot of freckles, too. He was really skinny, and he was shaking and moaning really bad.

"He was in really bad shape, because he had let the disease go too far. Plus, he had asthma, and he had just had an asthma attack. That made him really... frail, and it was risky to operate on him, but we couldn't wait any longer.

"I kept trying to give him some medicine that would knock him out, but he couldn't keep it down long enough for it to have an effect. He was one of the reasons we invented this thing called the Plugger."

"The _what_," asked Hiccup.

"Plugger," said Camicazi. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll be able to see it soon. Anyways, we couldn't get the boy sedated, so we had to hold him down. But he was too weak to fight. I think he went into shock after they cut him, so he probably didn't feel anything.

"We thought the shock would wear off, but when it didn't, we had to put him into a medically induced coma. He should have only been out for a few days, but we knew with his condition, he would be out for at least a week. But he never woke up... His heart stopped after a month. After that, I've hardly ever stayed to help with a surgery."

Hiccup sighed and gripped Camicazi's hands tighter. "Camicazi, you know I'm gonna stay here."

Camicazi sighed too, then looked up at him. "I know. But... why?"

"In case the same thing happens to me. If today is gonna be my last, then I want to spend as much of the rest of it with Toothless as I can. I know he'll want to be with me when I..."

Camicazi nodded as she understood. She sighed, then called over to Stormfly, who was halfway across the hotspot.

"So, what's going on," asked Stormfly, looking at Camicazi hopefully.

"You and I are going back to the village to find a cure, and Hiccup said he's gonna stay here and wait for Toothless. So let's go," said Camicazi with a deadpan expression. She turned away to the edge of the clearing. Stormfly stared after her as if Camicazi had just cussed her out in Swahili. Finally, after digging her jaw out of the dirt, Stormfly walked over to Camicazi. Camicazi hopped up on Stormfly's back.

As Hiccup walked over to Camicazi, he was intercepted by the purple Nightmare.

"Message from the one called Toothless," he said. "Toothless says he's on his way, but even running at full speed, he's still an hour or so away. He said to just hang tight for a while and wait for another message. He said something else, but I can't remember it yet..."

"Thanks," said Hiccup, then he ran over to Camicazi, who hopped off of Stormfly again. "Toothless is on his way here. He should be here in about an hour or so."

"Good. Remember, when he gets here, you either need to fly back to the village, or strap yourself in and let him run as fast as he can. And _don't_ leave this hotspot without him, or before he gets here. Got it?"

"Yeah," said Hiccup. Suddenly, he had tunnel-vision and he took a few steps back.

"You okay," asked Camicazi.

Without answering or waiting for an answer, they both looked up at the sky. It was a little past **3:00 **already. Hiccup only had 4 hours to live.

"Good luck," whispered Camicazi, unhooking Hiccup's basket from Stormfly's saddle and giving it to him, along with another canteen of water.

Hiccup took the basket and backed up a little bit. Camicazi turned to hop onto Stormfly's saddle, but paused. Then, out of nowhere, she quickly turned around, grabbed Hiccup by the front of his jacket, and gave him a light kiss, right on the lips. The next thing Hiccup knew, she was on Stormfly and they were gone.

Hiccup stood there, his fingers resting gently on his lips, staring at the sky. A small smile spread across his face.

"I remembered what he said," said a voice from behind Hiccup. Hiccup turned around to find the purple Nightmare standing behind him.

"What did he say," asked Hiccup.

"Toothless said that he thinks he found a cure..."

_A/N: Haha, fluff. You know the drill, read and review, and I'll try and post the next chapter. Once again, I love it when I'm the one making the cliffhangers. So remember: REVIEW REVIEW REVIEW! And try and avoid those poisonous reptiles. Those'll get ya'! That's why I hate Vorpents. A few of them made a nest under my bed... REVIEW! =_)


	10. Chapter 10

_A/N: Ironically, the only time I have time to post stories in on a weekday or Sunday night (now). Keep trying to guess what the dark blue creature with yellow eyes is. _

**Time's Running Out**

**Chapter 10**

**Breakthrough**

**3:25 pm**

Hiccup's symptoms were really picking up now. His fever make him dizzy, along with the thin blood rushing to and from his head every time he _moved_. Even worse, his eyesight was starting to get messed up. He knew he didn't have much time left.

After he had recovered from the shock of being kissed by Camicazi, he slowly stumbled his way over to a fallen log near the edge of the clearing. He found himself thinking about Camicazi and Toothless. _Why was it taking this long for Toothless to get here? Would Camicazi be able to find a cure? Does Toothless's cure actually work, or would it just kill him faster? Why had Camicazi kissed him...?_

It was this question that puzzled Hiccup the most. Why _had_ Camicazi kissed him?

_Maybe she accepted that I might die today, and that's her way of saying goodbye. Or maybe... maybe she likes me... No, that's crazy. Why in Odin's name would she like _me _of all people. She knows I'm a cripple... D-does she care...? _thought Hiccup.

Finally, after sitting on the log, lost in his thoughts for what seemed like forever, Hiccup looked up when he heard a shrill sound. A small, light blue blur streaked into the clearing and ran smack into the Monstrous Nightmare. The force of the blow actually knocked the Nightmare on his side.

Now that the blur had stopped moving and started shaking its head, Hiccup saw that it was a small blue Terrible Terror, that had flown into the hotspot at supersonic speeds. It said (more like gasped) something to the Nightmare, who was blushing deeply and picking himself off of the ground, trying to look as dignified as possible after being run down by a dragon smaller than his claw. Luna was giggling childishly, while Drift was sprawled out on his back, laughing so hard that he spat green fire into the sky. The Nightmare nodded, and the Terror passed out from the effort it took to break the sound barrier. The Nightmare padded over to Hiccup.

"I just got another message from Toothless. He said it might take him a little longer to get here than he originally thought. He said to start heading back to your village by **4:30** if he hasn't gotten here yet. Oh, and he mentioned that the snake that bit you was poisonous, and he hopes you're handling the symptoms well."

Hiccup weakly smiled at this. "Honestly, I'm not handling them well at all, but _please_ don't tell him that."

"Don't worry," smiled the Nightmare, "I'm not about to rat you out."

"Thanks," said Hiccup, his vision getting a bit blurrier. "But what if he asks you something?"

"Meh... I'll just wing it." With that, the Nightmare promptly began to crack up laughing at his own pun (get it? _Wing _it).

There was a scuffling sound from the forest behind Hiccup, and the Nightmare stopped laughing, cocking his head with curiosity. There was a strange look on his face.

"You know this guy," the Nightmare asked Hiccup. Hiccup turned around and saw only... white. _Wait, what?_ Looking up, Hiccup realized that right behind him was Gobber's Boneknapper, Goliath.

"Hey, what's up," asked Hiccup in a mellow voice.

"Except for you, big guy," said the Nightmare. Goliath shot the Nightmare a glance that said: _Don't do anything stupid and I might let you live. _The Nightmare interpreted that glance correctly and said: "Yeah, so I'm gonna go and cower behind Luna." He did.

"So... what's going on," asked Hiccup.

"Nothing. I was flying, and I flew past that Mood Dragon, Stormfly. I think her human was crying. Anyways, she yelled at me to come by here and make sure you didn't get yourself killed or mauled or something."

"Well, I'm fine, but I appreciate the concern," said Hiccup. "Thanks."

Goliath nodded, then turned to leave. However, he stopped and turned back to Hiccup, a confused look on his face. He lowered his giant head a bit closer to Hiccup, sniffing something.

"Why are you missing some bones?" asked Goliath.

Hiccup was extremely confused for a minute, before remembering that Boneknappers can actually _smell_ the number of bones that people have in their body. Hiccup's number was unusually low.

"Uh, probably because I'm missing my foot and one of my ribs," explained Hiccup.

"Weird. Last time I saw you, you were only missing your foot."

"Yeah, well, that just shows you how _crazy_ my life is," sighed Hiccup, sitting back down on the log. He looked up at the sun, hanging low in the sky. He only had 3 and a half hours left.

**4:25 pm**

Camicazi was not making any progress, even though she had been working the minute she got home. She was glad that Stormfly hadn't seen her crying for Hiccup. So far, she hadn't found a single neutral antidote that would cure the White Death's poison. To be neutral, the cure had to neutralize the poison without hurting Hiccup or causing any dangerous side-effects.

So far, she had only found one thing that neutralized the poison, but it was a plant called snakebane, which was deadly to humans, and any human who ate it would die instantly, no matter what.

Frustrated, Camicazi grabbed a few handfuls of her hair, ready to rip them out, when she saw something on the shelf that her desk was next to.

There was a small glass bottle on the shelf. The liquid inside was pure grass green. Due to her sitting position and her small build, Camicazi couldn't see the whole label, just the top. She could tell that it wasn't her handwriting.

She grabbed it, not bothering to read the label. She took a single drop and put it on a drop of the poison. Her jaw hit the floor at the result.

Almost immediately, about half of the poison disappeared. With another drop, the poison was gone. Camicazi was amazed, and so excited that she could have done 100 cartwheels. She just decided to wait for a second and see what the cure actually _was_ before getting excited. She looked down at the bottle in her hand and read the label, but that was when her smile fell.

"So that's it then," she whispered to herself. "That's the cure..."

Camicazi gulped.

_Hiccup is not going to like this, but I guess we're desperate._

_A/N: Cliffhangers. =_) _So, I'm still taking guesses for the disease, what the dark blue creature is, and the newest question: What do you think the cure is? R&R and nobody gets hurt. Sorry for not updating earlier. I was attacked by flaming Nanodragons. Burns everywhere. Even on my fingers. I still smell like a campfire (not that I don't like campfire smell, but I don't like being burnt). R&R!_


	11. Chapter 11

_A/N: Just keep guessing. All the answers will soon be revealed! In the next chapter. Warning: possibly my shortest chapter ever in this story. Possibly. _

**Time's Running Out**

**Chapter 11**

**Going Home... Maybe**

**4:45 pm**

Hiccup hadn't had an asthma attack yet, but he could feel one coming on. Just a few months ago, he had developed asthma. Back then, it had been really unstable, always going off randomly and never letting him run or fly up high on Toothless. It was his unstable asthma that caused Toothless to get distracted during the dragon fight with the Dagger Claw. Using Toothless's distraction, the Dagger Claw had knocked Toothless away and attacked Hiccup, tearing out his rib.

Now that his asthma had stabilized, it only acted up when called for. In fact, Hiccup was surprised that he didn't have an asthma attack this morning when he opened the door. Cold air tends to do that.

Now, Hiccup was restless. Toothless hadn't sent a message in a while, but he knew that Hiccup was at this hotspot. However, Hiccup decided to start making his way back to the village.

Hiccup gathered up his stuff, took the dagger out of his basket and put it on his belt, and went over to the Monstrous Nightmare.

"Um, if Toothless comes by here, can you tell him that I went back to the village," asked Hiccup.

"You're leaving? Well, I'll tell Toothless what you said. Stay safe, Snakebait."

Drift looked over too. "If you happen to know anyone looking for a dragon-"

Hiccup nodded. "I know."

"Stay safe little one," said Luna. Then she added jokingly: "And watch out for those Night Furies. They can be a pain."

For the first time since the attack, Hiccup laughed. And with final goodbyes, he set off.

The first thing Hiccup noticed was just how dark and creepy it was under the tree canopy. The light was now dying faster than Hiccup, and in less than an hour, it would get _pretty_ dark. And dangerous. The wild forests of Berk was _not_ a place one wanted to be at night.

Hiccup gulped, and started breathing a bit harder. He had been walking for about 5 minutes now, so he wondered why he was having such a hard time breathing... unless...

Hiccup's asthma attacked. The warning had not prepared him for what felt like total suffocation. It was so intense and severe that Hiccup collapsed to the ground, curling up in the fetal position as he gasped for air.

Finally, after a few minutes of suffering in silence, Hiccup could finally feel his airway start to open back up again. Shuddering, Hiccup lay on the ground for a little while longer, enjoying the feeling of breathing, before cautiously standing again.

He grabbed onto a tree and allowed his thin blood to flow back to his head. After catching his breath again, he stumbled for another 30 seconds before another asthma attack hit. This one was much worse than the first one, mainly because he collapsed into a snowdrift. The asthma was severely intensified by the cold.

Hiccup painstakingly dragged himself out of the snowdrift and shakily settled himself between the roots of two large trees. He tried to get warm to lessen the severity of the attack.

The second attack took twice as long to die out as the first one. One thing was for sure: this would be a long trip.

_A/N: **IMPORTANT MESSAGE**! In the next chapter, you find out what the dark blue creature with the yellow eyes is! Guarantee: you will NOT have seen that one coming (unless you guessed it)! If you still want to guess what the creature is, then **REVIEW BEFORE YOU READ THE NEXT CHAPTER**! Also, hidden in the chapter above is a clue to what the creature is. If you're wondering, Hiccup has seen the creature before, in his nightmares. Some might say that nightmares are... prophetic... _


	12. Chapter 12

_A/N: RIB CHAPTER! RIB CHAPTER! **RIB CHAPTER! **Gulp..._

**Time's Running Out**

**Chapter 12**

**Dragon Bait**

**5:40 pm**

For some reason, Hiccup' asthma kept up for about 10 minutes after it was supposed to end. But then again, that might have been his normal asthma. Either way, it delayed him.

Camicazi must have been getting worried by now. Hiccup had said he would start making his way back by 5 o'clock at the latest. Maybe she had been so busy looking for a cure that she hadn't seen the time.

Hiccup thought again about how Camicazi had kissed him, and he felt a pang of horror as he realized that that kiss might have been the last... Hiccup sighed. It was a good thing she couldn't see Hiccup now. He felt worse than he looked, which was pretty bad. He was paler than he had ever been before (even in death), and his fever was so high that it would kiss a regular person (the thing about the poison is that it actually keeps you from dying from the fever in order to make you suffer more. It was sadistic). He was shaking so violently that he could barely hold the canteen of water (which he needed really badly now, because the symptom for the hour was dehydration). His vision was still pretty messed up, but he _had_ to make it back in less than 20 minutes. Because Hiccup was sure that he would _not_ be able to find his way back home if he was blind.

Hiccup practically crawled along for about 10 more minutes. Finally, he was able to make it to his feet as his asthma finally let up. The first thing that hit him was a tree branch that was hanging a little low. The _second_ thing that his him was just how thirsty he was. He only had 2 and a half canteens of water left. 10 seconds later, he just had 2 left.

After a few minutes of walking, he completely ran out of water. Hiccup was dizzy due to the lack of water, and he felt like he was ready to vomit or pass out... Or both.

By the time he was just 5 minutes away from the village, he stopped. Leaning against a tree gasping, Hiccup thought about melting some snow for water, but most of the snow was already gone, and he didn't want to risk it because whatever show _was_ left was probably contaminated, and Hiccup didn't want to risk contracting another deadly disease when he only had less than an hour and a half left.

Just as Hiccup was on the brink of passing out, he actually looked up. Across from the tree he was leaning on was a strange tree with leaves like bowls. Hiccup immediately know that these trees were practically designed to collect uncontaminated water in their leaves.

Hiccup shakily limped over to the tree, but to his disappointment and despair, he found that the leaves within reach were all empty.

Hiccup slowly circled the tree a few times before finally spotting a single leaf that was full to the brim. He had missed it earlier because of his messed up eyesight and the almost completely faded light.

Wasting no time, Hiccup drained at least half of it into his mouth, and the rest into a canteen. Now he was ready to get back home.

A faint noise stopped him. He could barely hear it, but it sounded to Hiccup like the sound of a far-off-but-getting-closer dragon, running at full speed. Hiccup smiled. Toothless would have a cure if Camicazi didn't.

Suddenly, the bushes that Hiccup was standing next to started rustling. Hiccup froze.

_Please don't be a snake, please don't be a snake_, thought Hiccup as he slowly turned towards the bushes. There was definitely something in the thicket. And it was big. However, at the time, Hiccup still couldn't see very well, and the dying light wasn't helping. His curiosity (and lack of common sense) getting the better of him, he leaned in closer, looking into the bushes.

Suddenly, something dark whipped around and smacked him in the forehead. Hiccup fell back, then scrambled backwards, pressing up against a tree across the path.

Hiccup was suddenly blinded by the blood pouring into his eyes. He put a shaking hand to his head where he had been hit, and found that it stung to the touch. When he looked at his hand, it was completely covered in sticky warm blood.

A rush of dizziness came over Hiccup as he quickly lost a lot of his thin blood, most of it pouring into his eyes, turning the world red.

Hiccup let out a strangled gasp as the scene from his nightmare came alive. Hiccup struggled to his feet as the creature emerged from the bushes. He could hear Toothless, closer now.

Hiccup wiped the blood from his eyes, but then wished he hadn't, because staring him down, closing in for the kill, yellow eyes blazing malevolently, was _another Night Fury._

This thing was twice the size of Toothless. It's scales were midnight blue. It's neck was slightly longer and it's tail was a bit shorter. And it had one thing on it's mind: _kill._

With a snarl, it lunged for Hiccup. Hiccup just barely managed to avoid having the dragon bite down on his neck by throwing himself to the side. Unfortunately, the dragon just sunk it's teeth into Hiccup's left shoulder instead, biting down with bone-shattering force.

Before Hiccup could pass out or even register the pain, he looked right into the homicidal dragon's eye, inches from his own, staring back at him. In it's depths lurked pure _evil_. Subconsciously, Hiccup felt his left hand grab something, but he finally lost his hold on everything as the monster started to thrash around, tearing at the muscles in his shoulder and neck. Then the world faded into blackness...

_A/N: I was so tempted to end this chapter right when the Night Fury stepped out of the bushes. Was anybody surprised? I hope so. While I was writing this chapter, my dog scared the crap out of me! All was quiet in the house, and I was at the part where the bushes started to rustle. Then my dog quietly walked in and her cold wet nose touched my ankle. Result: GAH! I swear, whenever I'm writing a suspenseful part in a story, my dog either suddenly barks or jumps me._


	13. Chapter 13

_A/N: Did you find the hint that Luna gave in chapter 11? she said: "Night Furies can be a pain." _

**Time's Running Out **

**Chapter 13**

**On The Brink**

**6:10 pm**

Hiccup was vaguely aware of a mysterious pressure on his shoulder. Every so often, he would feel the same type of pressure on his back or on the back of his head. But most alarming: he could feel himself dying, his heart stopping. Hiccup was on the brink of death.

Suddenly, just as Hiccup was about to slip away into death, there was a sharp cry of pain and the pressure on his shoulder was released, replaced by sudden cold. The cold seemed to bring him back to his senses some, and the pain and dizziness and blood loss started to register.

All around him were sounds of a dragon fight. That could only mean one thing: Toothless was here.

Suddenly, there was a loud _snap_, followed by the thunk of the body of one of the dragons hitting the ground. One was dead. And in a few seconds, Hiccup would know which one.

"Hiccup," whispered a frantic voice in Dragonese. _Toothless._ Toothless had survived. But... would Hiccup?

_A/N: My shortest chapter ever. Ever. Sorry. But you should know what that means: the next chapter will possibly be the longest chapter of the story. It's when another question is answered. Actually, TWO questions are answered. If you have yet to guess what the mysterious disease is, or what the cure is, then please do it before reading the next chapter. R&R so that I can get inspiration for the sequel. =)_


	14. Chapter 14

_A/N: Someone hit the panic button! RIB chapter! Secrets revealed._

**Time's Running Out**

**Chapter 14**

**Saving Hiccup**

**6:20 pm**

Toothless had been running as fast as he could, trying to get to Hiccup before the poison did. There was only one thing he didn't know: his _brother_ had decided to pay a visit.

Toothless's brother was one of the most violent dragons Toothless had ever known. He would kill things just to hear their screams. Even worse, he hated humans. Worst of all: he and Toothless were _twins_.

Toothless had just turned the corner in time to see his brother lunge at Hiccup and grab his shoulder. He began thrashing around as if _he_ were the one in pain, slamming Hiccup's back into a thick tree in the process. Hiccup's blood was everywhere.

The other dragon had it's back turned when Toothless attacked. A well aimed fireball hit the dragon on the back of the head.

Enraged, it dropped Hiccup's lifeless body on the snow. The snow turned dark crimson instantly.

The dragon faced Toothless, silently challenging him to fight. Toothless didn't need persuasion.

Faster than lightning, Toothless jumped up into the air. His brother lunged at him, and Toothless spun around and smacked him with his tail, which is what his brother had done to Hiccup. The dragon fell to the side, its head cracking a tree trunk.

Using his brother's obvious distraction, Toothless stood in front of Hiccup's body, protecting him. His brother shakily stood up, swaying a bit from side to side, disoriented. He smiled at Toothless, showing his mouthful of dagger-like teeth. Some teeth still had Hiccup's blood on them. And maybe it was just the light playing tricks on his eyes, but Toothless could have sworn that his brother's teeth looked like they were stained... green?

"You can't save him now," whispered the dragon, menace in his voice. "My job has almost been completed."

"_Never,_" hissed Toothless. "You'll never take him away from me."

With that, Toothless jumped up in the air again. His brother fell for the trick and jumped too. It's neck was left completely exposed as it shot a fireball.

Toothless whipped down, dodging the fireball, and grabbed his brother's neck from underneath, putting him in a choke-hold, blocking his airway. Toothless quickly maneuvered his way around behind the other dragon, teeth still around it's neck. His brother's eyes were bulging and he was trying to step on Toothless, to no avail. Finally, Toothless managed to get into a position where he was practically standing on his brother's back.

"No one messes with _my _human," growled Toothless through his teeth. With a single, violent twist and a sickening snap, it was all over. His brother's body fell limply to the ground.

A weak, involuntary moan came from Hiccup, who still hadn't moved at all. Toothless feared the impact from the tree might have paralyzed him.

"Hiccup?" he whispered somewhat frantically.

For a heart-stopping moment, Hiccup didn't move. He could easily have been dead, just by how pale he was or because it was nearly impossible to see his chest moving when he breathed. But finally, after about 30 seconds of unresponsiveness (the longest 30 seconds in Toothless's life), Hiccup's pale hand slowly curled into a fist before going totally limp and unresponsive again.

Toothless needed to get Hiccup back to the village and get him back to Camicazi's house. He only had about 30 minutes left. However, Toothless didn't want to risk moving Hiccup. What if the impact had caused some damage? Toothless didn't want to make it worse.

Instead, he used his wing and scooped up Hiccup, along with a lot of the blood-stained snow around him. With Hiccup in a protective cradle in his wing in front of him, Toothless took one last glance at his defeated brother before taking off at a dead run.

Apparently, Hiccup had put up some kind of a fight. After all, Hiccup's dagger _was_ lodged in the dragon's right eye. What probably happened was that looking into the eyes of pure evil made Hiccup subconsciously attack the eye. Because it's right eye was closer to Hiccup's dominant left hand, which just happened to be holding a dagger, it's right eye got an eye-full of jagged metal.

In less than one minute flat, Toothless had made it back to the village. They had been having some good luck with people not being near Camicazi's house, and their luck seemed to continue. Something had been set on fire on the other side of the village, which was a nice distraction.

_I hope, _thought Toothless, _that that Nightmare followed my instructions and only set fire to that abandoned shack._

Luckily for them (and Camicazi's door), Stormfly was looking out the door, just peeking out, when Toothless burst through the forest at groundbreaking subsonic speeds. Stormfly barely managed to pull the door open in time.

Toothless skidded in, blood spilling onto the floor.

"Toothless! In here! Now!" shouted Camicazi from the room they had been in earlier. Toothless rushed in and Camicazi immediately lifted Hiccup from the pool of blood that had formed and gently put him in the bed.

"Be careful," said Toothless as Hiccup moaned. "He got hit pretty hard. I don't know if it broke anything, but..."

Stormfly immediately translated, and Camicazi gently ran her fingers under Hiccup's back.

"Just a few cracked ribs, but I don't want him to move his head around," said Camicazi as she draped a soaking wet towel on Hiccup's forehead, trying in vain to stop the bleeding and lower his fever.

Camicazi needed to get the full extent of the wound on his shoulder, so she had to use a knife and cut what was left of Hiccup's jacket away. Toothless noticed that she only cut it along the seams so that it could easily be sewn back together.

As Camicazi started to clean the bite wound on his shoulder, she asked Toothless: "So what bit him?"

"A-another Night Fury," stammered Toothless, searching for any sign of life in Hiccup's pale face.

When Stormfly translated, Camicazi stopped cold; the small bottle of disinfectant slipped from her hand. Stormfly barely managed to catch it with her wing.

"W-what is it?" asked Toothless.

"Toothless," said Camicazi very quietly, "you need to bite him again."

"WHAT! Why!"

"That's the only cure we could find: Night Fury poison!"

"B-but Night Furies aren't poisonous!"

"Toothless, trust me."

"B-but-"

"Dig deep!"

Toothless was panting now. _Night Furies can't be poisonous! It can't be true! _But then he noticed something. He could feel something just under the muscle he used to retract his teeth. Toothless realized that it was a poison gland, that had been dormant for his whole life... until now.

"I-I found a dragon who said a cure for it was s-snakebane," said Toothless.

Camicazi shook her head. "Snakebane is deadly to humans. Toothless, you're Hiccup's only hope!"

"But another Night Fury bit him! Shouldn't he be cured already?"

Stormfly, who was looking out the window at the position of the newly risen moon, said: "You guys need to _hurry up_! It's **6:55**! Hiccup only has 5 minutes to live!"

"Does he _look _cured to you? It takes twice as much Night Fury poison than White Death poison! He's only half cured!"

They were both silenced by a quiet, scared moan, following a painful cough. Hiccup was clearly dying. He was visibly getting weaker as the poison stopped his heart. He only had 3 minutes left.

His weak hand reached for Toothless. Toothless, on the verge of tears, pressed his nose gently into Hiccup's hand. He noticed that Hiccup was getting hotter, but would soon suddenly become very cold...

"Okay... I'll do it," agreed Toothless.

"1 minute left..."

"Bite him in the same place the other one did so you don't open any more wounds," whispered Camicazi.

Toothless carefully lined his teeth up with the wound on Hiccup's shoulder, activated his poison gland for the first time in his life, and sank his venomous teeth into his best friend's shoulder.

In the 5 seconds it took for Toothless to put the rest of the poison into Hiccup, Camicazi had already thought of all the things that could go wrong. For example: over-poisoning.

If Toothless put _too much _poison into him, then Hiccup could risk being poisoned by Night Fury poison. But it was worth the risk.

After 5 long seconds, Toothless, who was shaking as much as Hiccup, pulled back, tasting Hiccup's blood in his mouth.

Only 10 seconds until 7. Then finally, FINALLY, Hiccup took a deep breath and relaxed some. And then the time hit **7:00**. And Hiccup was still alive.

His eyelids slowly fluttered open, and the glassy look started to disappear. Giving the best smile he could under the circumstance, Hiccup painfully whispered: "So, what was the cure?"

Toothless gulped. "Poison."

"That makes sense." Hiccup stopped as he grimaced in pain. Just as Hiccup started to look down, Camicazi interrupted.

"Hiccup, you took a pretty hard hit to your back and head. Can you still feel your foot or your legs?"

"Yeah," moaned Hiccup. He was thinking: _She said foot instead of feet..._

"Okay. Just... don't move your head, and don't look down."

The very next thing Hiccup did was move his head to look down at his shoulder.

The memories of the pain came rushing at Hiccup. He closed his eyes and gritted his teeth, trying not to cry out.

"Here, drink this," she said, handing him a canteen of what looked like water. "Drink slow. I need you to keep that down. It'll help you replace a lot of the blood you lost."

Hiccup obediently drank the liquid in the canteen, while Toothless rested his head on the bed right next to Hiccup.

Toothless was also really worried about the over-poisoning. He somehow instinctively knew that one of the things the poison did was suffocate the victims. He hoped he had gotten it right. It seemed Hiccup had had enough poisoning for one day.

Hiccup involuntarily moaned, the multiple bites making the wound on his shoulder feel raw. He coughed again, getting another taste of blood in his mouth. Toothless knew that coughing up blood was a symptom of Night Fury poisoning too.

"Can't we give him some dragon blood for his shoulder or his head," Toothless asked Camicazi.

Camicazi shook her head, no. "It's too soon. You would actually be curing your own poison, and the cure wouldn't work. We have to wait at least an hour before we give him blood. Any other pain-killers would be okay." For some reason, Camicazi looked nervous, glancing quickly at Hiccup about every 5 seconds.

As Camicazi went to get another wet rag, she leaned over to Stormfly and whispered something to her. Stormfly nodded, then ran out the door.

Camicazi came back and replaced the bloody rag with a new clean one. She noticed that the blood had stopped flowing freely from Hiccup's head. The deep, 4 inch gash was closing up some. That meant the poison's symptoms were wearing off.

Hiccup tried to relax some, but something was bothering him. Even though he was cured, he still felt like something was... _wrong._

Outside, there were dark storm clouds rolling in. it was still cold enough for snow, but Hiccup doubted it would snow. It would be more like half-frozen rain.

Toothless must have also sensed something was still not right. He was looking around nervously, standing next to Hiccup's bedside protectively.

Camicazi, on the other side of the room, had pulled a small table a couple of feet away from the bed. She was putting a bunch of bottles and stuff on there.

Hiccup and Toothless didn't really notice. Thunder rumbled in the distance. Hiccup could hear the sound echoing around inside his head, making the headache he had gotten a few seconds earlier worse.

Hiccup closed his eyes. He must have accidentally moaned again, because he opened is eyes again to see Camicazi and Toothless staring down at him. Camicazi's hand was pressed against the side of Hiccup's face. Hiccup could tell by the worried look on Camicazi's face that his fever was still high.

"What's going on," asked Hiccup. He had started to get dizzy again and it felt like he was about to puke. He wanted to believe that his nausea was caused by the fact that he hadn't eaten at all that day, but he knew that wasn't what was _really _happening. The problem was: he didn't exactly know what _was _happening either. But Camicazi seemed to know.

"No no no _no_," muttered Camicazi to herself. "Not now! This can't be happening _now_!"

She looked back down at Hiccup, not trying to hide the anxiety on her face. "Hiccup, I'm so sorry this has to happen this soon! I didn't know it had gone this far. I thought you would still have hours left to get stronger... but you're just gonna have to try and make it through..."

"Camicazi, w-what are you- AAHH!" Hiccup was cut off mid-sentence by one of the worst pains he had ever experienced in his entire life. His side felt like it was ready to explode and implode at the same time.

So _that's_ what had been feeling wrong. It was that disease that Camicazi had told him about. The one that required surgery. The one that that boy had died because of...

Hiccup curled up on his side, practically convulsing in pain. He couldn't breathe, see, or even think straight. This sudden explosive pain was _way_ worse than the pain in his head, shoulder, and back that hit when he curled up.

Hiccup heard Toothless, who had already been practically vomiting with anxiety, cry out in distress as he watched Hiccup convulse. The pain didn't stop like it normally would have; in fact, the pain actually _increased _after a few minutes.

Camicazi tried to calm Hiccup a little bit so that it wouldn't hurt as bad, but he couldn't hear her anymore. He could hardly hear anything.

"W-what's wrong with him?" shrieked Toothless.

Before Camicazi could do anything, the door burst open. Stormfly rushed in, followed by a familiar looking Healer.

"Sig," cried Camicazi. Sig ran to where Hiccup was laying, curled up still, but hardly conscious.

"Help me get him on his back," instructed Sig.

Camicazi and Sig gently uncurled Hiccup, laying him back on his back. A flash of lightning from outside the window illuminated the shadowy room, making Hiccup's pale face look even paler.

When Sig had rushed in, she had put something on the table next to the bed. Toothless was unable to get a good look at it until she picked it up again. It was the hallowed-out horn of some type of dragon. There was a strange liquid inside the horn. It was a type of sedative, on that Toothless hoped could _not_ be burnt off by a fever. There was a thing on the back that you press down and it pushes the sedative out of the tiny hole in the sharp point. Basically, it was a hypodermic needle.

"What is _that_?" asked Toothless. Hiccup painfully opened his eyes to look.

"We call it the Plugger. It's what we use now to sedate people," said Camicazi.

"How'd you know," muttered Hiccup deliriously.

Sig pushed the pointy tip of the horn into the flesh on Hiccup's right arm and pushed the thing on the back down. Almost immediately, nearly all traces of pain disappeared from Hiccup's face as the sedative kicked in. With Hiccup fading, Camicazi and Sig stepped away from the bed to give Toothless and Hiccup a moment of privacy, because it was clear that Hiccup probably wouldn't make it through the surgery. Sig whispered to Camicazi: "Appendicitis is a nasty disease, but I'm sure he'll be okay..."

Toothless lowered his head so that he could hear Hiccup.

"T-t-toothless," moaned Hiccup.

"I'm right here," whispered Toothless.

"T-toothless, I h-h-have a d-death w-wish."

Toothless was a little shocked at first, but he still said: "W-what is it?"

"If I d-die... don't f-follow..."

And with that, Hiccup's eyes slid closed and he was gone.

_A/N: Congratulations to EmporerIndy, Annabeth The Unicorn, and buggy1997123 for correctly guessing that Hiccup had appendicitis! And let's give a big round of applause for buggy1997123, who guessed that the dark blue creature with the yellow eyes was Toothless's evil twin! All of the really important events may be coming to a close, but don't go anywhere! The ending sets up the sequel! You know the drill: R&R and you all get virtual cookies! =) _


	15. Chapter 15

_A/N: It's all kinda down hill from here, but there is hinting at some things that happen in future stories and sequels. On with the story. When we last left off, Hiccup was about to undergo surgery. Will he make it? Some Toothless/Stormfly moments. _

**Time's Running Out**

**Chapter 15**

**Accidents and Secrets**

Toothless had been sitting outside on the doorstep for at least an hour. He could still smell Hiccup's blood through the door.

At first, Toothless had tried to stay with Hiccup, but he had a nervous break-down before they had even started. Stormfly had calmed Toothless down a little, then taken him outside. After that, Toothless had regained his composure and asked for some privacy. Stormfly went back inside.

It had grown dark right after the sunset (something Toothless hoped Hiccup would live to see again) and the thunder-snow and half-frozen rain that was falling now had helped to put out the remains of the fire across town that the purple Monstrous Nightmare had started (following Toothless's instructions to create a distraction). Toothless remembered stopping at the hotspot and telling the Nightmare which one was abandoned.

A few people had started drifting over his way, but they couldn't see Toothless because he was a black dragon hiding in the shadows where the torch light couldn't reach.

Toothless heard the door behind him open. Stormfly padded out and sat down next to him.

"It's over. He made it," said Stormfly after a moment of tense silence.

"But what went wrong," asked Toothless, even though the news gave him relief that couldn't be put into words.

"Well... h-his heart stopped twice. _Don't worry, _he'll be okay," added Stormfly after seeing the look on Toothless's face.

Toothless nodded. "Did Camicazi know that Hiccup would need the surgery?"

"Yeah. She saw all the symptoms of whatever he had. I think it's called appendicitis. But that's why she sent me to go find Sig. Sig is the best when it comes to surgeries. She also warned Hiccup earlier. When we were in a hotspot after sending a message to you. She told him about that thing they call the Plugger, and she said that he would get to see it soon. That's why he asked her how she knew."

Toothless sighed. "This is all my fault. Did his heart stop because he was still weak from the poisons and the attack?"

Stormfly gulped, which was just about the same as saying yes.

After another silent moment, Stormfly asked: "Why do you think this is _your_ fault? Hiccup already had that disease to begin with. Appendicitis isn't contagious."

"Not the disease! It's my fault he got bitten by that snake and got poisoned and mauled!"

"Toothless-"

"_Don't say I couldn't help it!_"

"But you _couldn't_! You can't blame yourself for every bad thing that happens to him."

Toothless shakily took a deep breath, thankful that Stormfly couldn't see the tears in his eyes in the darkness.

"This time of year- when the ice cracks- is usually always really hard for Hiccup. It's probably because of what happened a few years back with the Vorpent and the Doomfang and almost dying and everything. The sound of the ice breaking... I don't know, I guess it just kinda... _unhinges_ him.

"You know how, on the day the ice breaks, your instincts wake you up about half an hour before the ice breaks?"

"Yeah."

"Well, the year after Hiccup's Vorpentitis episode, last year, I woke up and looked over at him, and he was shaking real bad. I figured it was just the cold, and I left. But when I got back that night, I found out that Hiccup had gotten sick with nerves and stuff. He had a fever, and if he stood up, he would nearly pass out. As it turns out, the sound of the ice breaking freaked him out, and the sudden stress made him sick.

"That next day was the worst. The night before, I had stayed up for hours wondering what was gonna happen to Hiccup. I was hoping that this day would be easier for him to handle, because he had already experienced it, but... but I was wrong...

"I guess I eventually fell asleep, but I was so tired that even my instincts didn't wake me up. You know how the first day, only the ice closer to shore breaks?"

Stormfly nodded, then said: "Yeah, but it's nowhere _near_ as loud as when the ice breaks tomorrow, y'know, the ice out over the deeper waters."

Toothless gulped. "Exactly. Well, I actually woke up when the ice actually cracked. I was about to head out, but then I looked over at Hiccup, and my heart stopped... that was a bad choice of words...

"Hiccup was dead-pale, he wasn't moving, and the ice hadn't woken him up like he told me it did the day before. I started freaking out, because I didn't know what had happened to him. Even though I could barely see him breathing, and I could just hear his weak heartbeat, I still thought he was dead, or at least about to die."

"I remember that," said Stormfly. "I wasn't there, but Camicazi told me kinda what happened."

"Yeah, I called for Camicazi. I had to send a little Terror because I was afraid to leave Hiccup. Apparently, the little guy had to resort to screeching in Camicazi's ear until she followed him. The whole time there was still ice in the water, I didn't leave Hiccup's bedside once."

"Do you know exactly what happened to him?"

"Kinda. I think it was basically the same thing as the day before, with his nerves, but since he was already sick and weak, so he just sunk into a coma. I don't really... want to think about what would have happened if I had left earlier..."

"So how is it your fault that Hiccup got bitten by a poisonous snake and mauled by your twin?"

"Because I- wait... how did you know that the dragon that attacked him was my twin brother?"

"You were yelling random things in Dragonese during your nervous break-down, and that was one of them. You yelled something about _You demented homicidal monster! We were never twins! I should have killed you sooner! _Something like that."

"My brother hates me because I'm the first and only Night Fury to be brought down and ridden. In fact, I was the first _dragon_ to be ridden. My brother hates humans. He likes to bite them, tear up their muscles, and watch them bleed to death." Toothless shuddered with disgust. "Hiccup actually stabbed a dagger into his right eye when he attacked him."

"Is that why Hiccup got his head smashed on a tree?"

"Probably."

Stormfly sighed, and shook her head a bit. "As I said before, none of this is your fault. You need to calm down! Hiccup is going to be fine. His arm might be a little stiff for a while after the bite heals, but he can get through that."

"But I could have prevented him from being bitten in the first place! If I had stayed a little longer, I could have made sure he stayed home and didn't go into the forest. I could have kept him out of the path of the snake. And he almost died because I couldn't fight my_ stupid instincts!_"

"Toothless, I know what happened was awful, but Hiccup is still alive. His chances of surviving this... little adventure are getting higher. And it's not _all_ bad. We discovered a cure for the White Death poison, we might have broken the chain of poisonous snakes, and I think Hiccup personally (and accidentally) changed an undomesticated Monstrous Nightmare to go find a human. We changed people's _lives _today."

"But it almost ended the one I care about most..."

Stormfly was silenced.

Slowly, she leaned over to Toothless and gave him a dragon-kiss on the cheek. Toothless blushed under his scales.

"It'll all be okay in the end," she whispered. Toothless leaned into her shoulder and she put her head on top of his.

About 15 minutes later, the door opened behind them and light poured out into the stormy darkness. It was Camicazi.

"You guys should come inside now," she whispered.

Toothless and Stormfly followed Camicazi into the room. There was an overpowering smell of Hiccup's blood in the air. Sig was standing over Hiccup, doing a final check to make sure Hiccup was stable and would make it through the night. She couldn't be sure.

Sig sighed, and stood up. She looked over at Toothless and smiled sadly. She took a deep breath, then picked up the needle and a small wooden box. The smell of blood coming from the box was overwhelming.

"W-what's in that box," asked Stormfly and Toothless at the same time.

"Well..." said Sig nervously. She sighed. "It's what wasn't going right. It's gonna be burnt in a few hours."

Toothless's eyes widened a bit and he looked at the box in horror. _Burn it now! _he silently willed. _Take that thing that was hurting my Hiccup and burn it..._

Sig turned to Camicazi. "Come get me if he gets worse." She nodded. With that, Sig walked out the door and into the night, only to be greeted with 3 pairs of friendly glowing eyes. Drift was the closest one to Sig, just a few inches from her face, his orange eyes glowing excitedly. Luna and the Nightmare were standing in the background.

"Hey buddy," said Sig, rubbing the Drifter behind the horns. He purred. "Do you have a human?"

The dragon looked down and sadly shook it's head, no.

"Oh, well that's okay," said Sig soothingly. "If it makes you feel any better, I don't have a dragon yet."

At this, Drift perked up. Luna nodded in the background. Things seemed to be looking up.

"Luna," came a whisper from behind her. Turning around, Luna saw the Nightmare peeking through the window, looking inside.

"Let me know what happens to Snakebait," whispered Drift to Luna as Sig led him away happily.

"Good luck, Drift," whispered Luna.

Drift shook his head. "That's not my name anymore..." And with that, he happily bounded down the hill after his new master.

Luna quietly walked padded over to the window, her Moon Scales glowing a bit more dim with worry.

She hoped little Snakebait would be okay...

xXx

After Sig left, Toothless walked quietly over to where Hiccup lay. Hiccup was still really pale. There was a strange, small, clamp/brace-like device on only the back of Hiccup's neck, probably there to keep him from straining his back and head injury. His skinny face looked more fragile than ever, making Toothless feel even more protective. The wounds on his shoulder and forehead had been bandaged. Someone (probably Camicazi) had slipped him into a thin white short-sleeve shirt, seeing as his green one had been torn and covered in blood.

"Hiccup," whispered Toothless, even though he knew Hiccup couldn't hear him. Hiccup didn't even move.

"He was still really weak, so we had to put him into a medically induced coma," explained Camicazi. "For all we know, it could last for a few weeks, or a few days. Heck, his fever might even burn off the medicine sooner."

"Is he gonna be okay," asked Toothless and Stormfly at the same time.

"If he ever wakes up, then we'll know..."

_A/N: Yay! Drift found a human! Does anyone want to guess what his new name might be (no, it's not Drift). Also, if you want to come up with a cool dragon name, then that's cool, because I'm still trying to find the right name for this one evil female dragon in the sequel. If you can think of a good name for her, PLEASE leave it in the review or PM me. Thank you! =D_


	16. Chapter 16

_A/N: Anyone who still wants to suggest a name is perfectly welcome to. Thanks to LeDragonQuiMangeDePoisson, Annabeth The Unicorn, and G'lek for the great names. Anyone else want to guess what Drift's new name is gonna be (hint: it doesn't have anything to really do with this story, but it's an awesome fire-related dragon name)?_

**Time's Running Out**

**Chapter 16**

**Weak, Crippled, and Alive**

It was late; some time between 9 o'clock and midnight. Camicazi had drifted off, and Stormfly was out cold, sprawled out on her back, mouth hanging open. Toothless, however, was still awake. He was still sitting at Hiccup's bedside, waiting for him to wake up.

It was highly unlikely that Hiccup would wake up soon. In fact, there was also a chance that Hiccup wouldn't wake up at all.

Toothless could see that Hiccup still had a fever. He wondered how long it might take for his fever to burn off the medicine.

After a while of absolute stillness, Toothless began to feel tired. His eyes grew heavy with sleep, and the sound of the frozen rain was calming... gently tapping the wall... putting him to sleep...

Hiccup moaned. All of the tiredness immediately left Toothless as Hiccup coughed and moved his head a little bit. Hiccup frowned in his sleep, indicating that he had drifted into a lighter sleep.

Toothless quickly woke Camicazi. It was a good thing he woke her when he did; she had been fading into a deeper sleep and would _not_ have been very happy about being woken up.

"Did he open his eyes yet?" asked Camicazi, her speech slurring a little because the sleep had not quite left her.

"Not yet," said Toothless, shaking his head so that she could understand because both translators were unconscious.

Hiccup coughed again and this time, mumbled something that neither of them could understand.

"You didn't give him any dragon blood, did you?"

Toothless shook his head, no.

Hiccup started shivering. His breathing became more shallow and somewhat painful. He coughed again. Then slowly, _slowly_, his eyes fluttered open. They were still really glassy, but it was fading... kinda.

Hiccup gave a weak smile up at Toothless and Camicazi.

"C-can I take this thing off now," asked Hiccup, weakly pointing to the thing on the back of his neck. He didn't have to move at all to point, because his hand was already sprawled up by his head. "It's c-cold."

Camicazi nodded, then reached under Hiccup's neck and turned something over on the clamp. There was a click, and the clamp came completely loose. Camicazi took it and put it somewhere.

"Hiccup, are you okay," asked Toothless.

Hiccup smiled weakly. Toothless noticed that Hiccup hadn't really moved except his head and hand.

"I wouldn't call _this_-" he gestured to himself, "-okay, but at least I'm still alive... I _am_ alive, right?"

"Yeah," said Toothless.

"How do you feel now," asked Camicazi.

"Half. Burning up. Tired. I pretty much feel like crap right now. At least I'm not dead. Can't say the same for dying though," said Hiccup. Toothless, who was moving to the foot of the bed, could tell how weak Hiccup still was just by his voice.

"Okay, so your fever's not _totally_ gone yet. I bet that's why you're awake this soon, but-"

Hiccup cut her off. "_This soon?_ How long has it been since I had the surgery?"

"Hiccup, you just got operated on _today_. About 4 or 5 hours ago."

"So what does that mean?"

"It means we either didn't give you enough sedative, or your fever is so high that the sedative got burnt up, and you pulled out of med coma early."

"Why did you have to put me in a coma?"

Toothless looked up at Hiccup and gulped.

"Well, during the surgery, you normally lose a lot of blood, but _you_ never had a chance to recover, so you were still really weak, and your blood was still really thin and your _heart stopped twice_," said Camicazi quickly. Hiccup looked paler.

"We had to induce a coma because we didn't know what kind of damage that blood loss might do."

"Is it dangerous that I pulled out so early?"

"Well, since you're still talking and breathing on your own, I'd say you're probably gonna be okay. But the sedatives might not have completely worn off, so that's why you're tired."

"Then why does everything hurt? Especially my side."

"Let me explain. You're gonna be really... stiff after this blows over. I think your shoulder is gonna fully heal, but be careful. No extreme sword fighting until a few months after it's fully healed. Your side might feel weird... kinda empty. That's because it is. If you get sick in the next few days, it's because this whole ordeal might have been a lot for your body to handle. So expect a flu."

"Thanks. Did you have that speech all ready written up?"

"Maybe. So if... wait a second. When I asked you how you felt, why did you say _half_?"

"It's because he can't feel his legs," said Toothless from the foot of the bed.

"H-how did you know I couldn't feel my legs," asked Hiccup.

"Because I've been nudging your right foot ever since you said half. If you could feel it, then you would have looked down here." Toothless nudged Hiccup's foot again, and Hiccup paled to see that he still couldn't feel anything.

"I think that's just the sedatives. They're really strong," said Camicazi. "The kind we used to put you in a coma is the same kind we use for really major things when we want to make sure the person under the knife doesn't feel anything. I think it just hasn't worn off on your legs yet. Your fever probably burnt off the upper half."

"Well, when will it wear off?"

"Tomorrow at the least." Hiccup didn't like the uncertainty in her voice.

Hiccup sighed, then winced. "Why does my side still hurt when I breathe? I thought you guys fixed that."

"That's probably because your stitches are stretching a little when you breathe," explained Camicazi.

"_Stitches_?"

"Yeah. We always have to use stitches when we do this kind of surgery. And I should know. _I_ was the one who stitched you up. You're welcome."

Hiccup smiled at her. "Um, is it okay if I sit up?"

"Let Toothless help you. I don't want you to rip your stitches or reopen any wounds." She was looking at his shoulder, which was still hurting him.

Toothless came up from the foot of the bed and Hiccup wrapped his arms around his neck. With Toothless's help, Hiccup sat up and leaned against a pillow on the head of the bed.

Hiccup winced when he moved, still very sore. He slowly lifted the thin shirt that Camicazi had slipped on him earlier to reveal a line of stitches, about 3 or 4 inches long.

"Well... _that's _gonna leave a cool scar," said Toothless.

"Yeah," said Hiccup a little distractedly. He let his shirt fall back over the stitches.

"How do your stitches feel," asked Camicazi. "Can you feel your legs?"

"No, I still can't feel my legs, my stitches feel weird, and is Stormfly still alive?"

Camicazi looked at Stormfly, who was still on her back, snoring on the floor, legs and arms sticking straight up in the air like road-kill, a large pool of drool under her head. "Yes, I think she's alive. Dead dragons don't snore."

"Okay, good... Um, Camicazi?"

"Yeah?"

"I think I need to get back to my house before morning."

"And I think you need to lie back down and take more sedatives."

"I'm serious! I _really_ don't want my dad to find out about this. He'd never let me _near_ the forest again, even though we killed the snake. If I get back before morning, and he doesn't see my injuries for the next few days, and he just thinks I'm sick, which I will be, then he probably will never know! I just hope he doesn't make me do any extreme sword fighting for a while, as per your demands."

"You _really_ need to lie back down."

"Camicazi, please just consider it. If I need you, I can get Toothless to come get you."

"But how are we even gonna get you to your house? You can't walk, you're still partly sedated, and you're still really weak from the blood loss and poison and everything."

"We could wrap him up, and I could carry him on my back with a saddle stretcher," suggested Toothless.

"Okay, fine, but Hiccup, wouldn't your dad hear us come in, or be wondering where you've been?"

"Actually, no, not really," said Hiccup. "My dad is used to me being out late flying. He won't hear us because he'll probably already be asleep, and once he's out, he can sleep outside in a hail storm without waking up."

Camicazi sighed, defeated. "Okay, I give up. Just... send Toothless over when you wake up in the morning. And expect _me_ there when you wake up."

"Hey look," said Toothless, looking out the window, which Luna and the Nightmare were hiding under. "It stopped raining."

_A/N: Only 3 chapters left. Please read and review. Also, if you are happy that Drift found a human, please make a note of it in the reviews. LeDragonQuiMangeDePoisson- I have written the stories in the notes in my iPod, but I don't think you can post a story or chapter from your iPod unless you have a Microsoft Word or OpenOffice app. You need to have the stories on an actual document to upload them. Also, you really need an account (or do you already have one). One more thing: you said the French word for shadow was i'ombre, right? Well, I found out that the Spanish word for shadow is sombra. I'm really liking the name Ombra so far. =) Thank you everyone for the awesome reviews! Please review this chapter! Thank you! =D _


	17. Chapter 17

_A/N: Sorry for not updating sooner. I had to give myself a little time to work on the sequel. If I haven't gotten to a certain point in the sequel, then it might take a bit of time. Sorry._

**Time's Running Out**

**Chapter 17**

**The Phantom Found**

What ended up happening was this: Camicazi practically mummified Hiccup in cloaks and blankets. Toothless couldn't switch into a saddle stretcher because Camicazi only had one, and Stormfly hadn't taken it off, so it was trapped under her. Toothless didn't really _need_ to switch anyway. It was at this point that Luna and the Nightmare made their escape when no one was looking.

The rain had stopped at the perfect time, but it was still freezing cold outside. Luckily, the distances between Hiccup's house and Camicazi's house was small.

Once they were inside Hiccup's room, Camicazi realized that the brief exposure had started Hiccup's violent shaking again, even though the blankets he had been wrapped up in had immediately been heated by his raging fever.

Camicazi gently lifted Hiccup and put him in his bed, blankets still wrapped around him. After a while, Hiccup's fever heated the bed enough for Camicazi to take the blankets and cloaks off.

"How do you feel," she asked.

"C-c-cold," said Hiccup.

"Just give it a minute. It'll get warmer."

After a few minutes, Hiccup slowly got warmer and the tremors disappeared. Camicazi saw this and pulled out a small glass vile and a canteen that she had brought with her. How she got all this stuff, Hiccup had no idea.

"What's that for," asked Hiccup as Camicazi poured a few drops into the canteen.

"It's a weak sedative. It'll numb you so you don't feel any pain, and wear off when you get into deep sleep, but it might take a while to kick in."

Camicazi handed Hiccup the canteen and told him to drink it all, but slowly. If he wanted to get to sleep and start healing, then it was vital that he kept it down.

Hiccup looked into the canteen and winced at the smell of the stuff. After a minute, realizing that he had no other choice with Camicazi standing over him, he reluctantly drank the watery stuff in the canteen, then wished he hadn't.

It. Tasted. Terrible. Hiccup gagged, and was visually fighting with himself to keep it down. His eyes and mouth were squeezed closed, he was breathing really hard, and his hands were clenched into fists. There was a thin layer of cold sweat of his forehead.

"C'mon, Hiccup, take it easy! Breathe; keep it down. Just a little bit longer," coaxed Camicazi.

Eventually, the sedatives stopped wanting to come up and started working their way into his system. While he was waiting for the sedatives to kick in and knock him out, he asked Camicazi: "So... how did you find out?"

"Find out what?"

In response, Hiccup gave the blanket covering him a little jerk, pulling it up some to expose his boots. Toothless, his teeth retracted, pulled off Hiccup's boots, then dropped them on the ground beside his bed. The dim firelight made the metal prosthetic glint. Toothless then pulled the blanket back down over Hiccup's feet.

"Oh... that. Well, it was after you had your rib yanked out by that Dagger Claw, and Sig was here checking your vitals and making sure you were stable. Then you started moaning that your foot hurt. Sig explained to me what Phantom Pain is, and then she told me basically how your foot got burnt off in a giant explosion."

"Okay... thanks for telling me. That was kinda killing me to know..."

"There is _one_ thing though..."

"What's that?"

"Why did you hide the fact that you had a prosthetic from me?"

Hiccup sighed. He knew that one was coming. "I didn't want you to think I was weak or crippled. I thought you wouldn't like me. Actually, I thought you would _hate _me. I thought you would hate me so much that you wouldn't come near me if you were on fire and I had the only bucket of water in the entire village!" He sighed and shook his head. He looked very much like a lost puppy.

"Hiccup, I would _never_ think that in a million years," whispered Camicazi. She gently leaned over and lightly kissed him on the cheek. He smiled a bit. "I want you to know that. No more secrets... Got it?"

Hiccup smiled and nodded. Suddenly, he shuddered a bit and relaxed as the sedatives kicked in. They may have just been to get him to sleep, but they were pretty effective.

As the world around Hiccup faded to blackness, he heard Camicazi talking to Toothless.

"When he wakes up... _if_ he wakes up... come and get me."

The rain started again as soon as she left.

_A/N: Not my longest chapter ever. Only 2 more chapters left. One more thing: does anyone want me to write a quick one-shot explaining how Hiccup and Toothless found out that dragon tears can heal wound or cure poisons? PM or review._


	18. Chapter 18

_A/N: Foreshadowing in this chapter!_

**Time's Running Out**

**Chapter 18**

**Spoken Through Nightmares**

For the first time in a long time, Camicazi had a nightmare. In her nightmare, _there was a battle. Snow was falling heavily, making it hard to see anything. She kept checking the sky, because she knew that Hiccup and Toothless were up there, hidden in the blizzard, waiting to attack the other tribe._

_The order must have been given to attack, because hundreds of dragons, using the classic Night Fury kamikaze bomber move, appeared out of nowhere, dive-bombing the enemy. Out of the masses of colored dragons, Camicazi found the only black-scaled dragon. Toothless._

_Their explosion was signature, wiping out about 5 enemy catapults with just one blast. After that main explosion, all of the dragons fell back into the storm. Now the warriors on the ground attacked._

_After fighting for a few minutes, her tribe fell back again, ready to let the dragons have another go. But this time, the enemies were ready for them. And it was Toothless and Hiccup who were leading the first attack this time._

_The bola hit Toothless and pinned his wings to his side. As they fell closer to the ground, Hiccup was thrown off. Their momentum on the ice was carrying them right towards a cliff, overlooking a 300 foot drop into a canyon._

_Toothless almost managed to hang on by grabbing something with his teeth, but Hiccup, too light and weak to hold on for long, slid right over the edge of the cliff and into the canyon, hundreds of feet below. Toothless screamed and lost his grip, also plummeting to the ground. Camicazi's scream was lost in the wind._

_Grabbing Stormfly and taking off into the canyon, Camicazi realized that she didn't know what she would find down there. She hadn't been able to see what had happened after they had fallen._

_Stormfly reached the bottom. The snow hadn't offered much of a soft landing. Hiccup and Toothless were both laying motionless, about 10 meters apart. Stormfly ran over to Toothless, while Camicazi ran to help Hiccup._

_Stormfly knew Toothless was okay, because he was breathing and responded immediately. It appears he had gotten the ropes off mid-fall, and had tried to get to Hiccup, but hadn't had enough time. After a minute of nudging, he opened his eyes._

"_S-Stormfly?" muttered Toothless, a bit disoriented. _

"_Toothless, are you okay?"_

_Toothless's eyes grew wide and his scales grew paler. "Hiccup!"_

_Toothless hopped up and sprinted over to where Camicazi sat, with Hiccup's limp body in her lap._

_Hiccup was in really bad shape. Camicazi didn't know what was broken, but judging by the odd angle his legs were sprawled at, both his legs and parts of his spine were broken. She could tell that his entire ribcage had been shattered because he was coughing up blood when he could breathe. Most of the damage had been internal._

_Camicazi gently stroked the blood-crusted hair out of his eyes. Hiccup moaned weakly. Toothless gently came over to Hiccup, tears spilling out of his eyes. Hiccup's hand, laying on his chest, opened some, and Toothless, tears flowing freely down his sad face, pressed his nose into Hiccup's palm. Camicazi was tempted to try and use Toothless's tears to try and heal Hiccup, but even the tears of 100 dragons couldn't heal these wounds._

_Stormfly opened her wings to their full length and tried to block the freezing wind. She knew it wouldn't help. Hiccup was beyond help._

_Slowly, poor, dying Hiccup opened his eyes. They were too glassy for him to be able to see anything, but he seemed to be looking Toothless straight in the eye. He muttered something in Dragonese, which was difficult with his voice failing him. Toothless gave a loud, choked sob and nodded before sinking to his knees, gasping for breath through the tears._

_Slowly, Hiccup painstakingly turned his head towards Camicazi._

"_G...g...good l...luck..." moaned Hiccup, his voice dying in the wind. He knew it was his time to go. He was beyond recovering. He was beyond living to see another day..._

_With a final look around, and one last heartbreaking look at Toothless, Hiccup's eyes slid shut, his chest went still as he stopped breathing, and his heart stopped forever._

_Hiccup had died in Camicazi's arms._

Camicazi almost screamed when she woke up. Stormfly was standing right next to her.

"Were you having a nightmare?" she asked.

Camicazi wiped her eyes, feeling that they were wet. She gulped. "Uh, yeah, I guess."

"I can tell. You were crying in your sleep. Okay, well, Toothless just left. He said that Hiccup hasn't woken up yet, but he's coughing and he's got a fever, so you were right about him getting sick. He's probably gonna send a Terror over again when Hiccup wakes up."

"Thanks," said Camicazi. She was thinking: _Was I really actually crying?_

She had decided not to tell Hiccup about her nightmare. It was a decision she would soon regret. Because, at the time, she didn't know how much a nightmare could tell a person about what was to come. And what was to come would be no better than her nightmare. If only she had known how to read a nightmare's story, she would have been able to warn Hiccup, and maybe things would have come out differently.

But for now, she remained silent...

_A/N: O.O … Please Review! There's only one chapter left. Aww. BUT DON'T WORRY! THERE WILL BE A SEQUEL TO THIS STORY, and a sequel to that story, and a sequel to that story, and a sequel to THAT story. I will write a lot of one-shots in between. And some stories for other movies. Thanks to all those who reviewed. Stick around for my next stories! =D _


	19. Chapter 19

_A/N: My last chapter for this story. Don't worry, I'll start working on the sequel ASAP! _

**Time's Running Out**

**Chapter 19**

**Aftermath**

When Toothless returned, Hiccup still hadn't woken up, but he was close. Even though it was early in the morning, and the deep-sea ice had yet to break, Toothless could hear Hiccup's father awake and moving around.

Toothless figured that he must have had a nightmare too. He could tell that Camicazi was having one when he went over there, because she was sweating in her sleep, tears streaming down her face.

Toothless wondered if it was the same nightmare that Hiccup's father usually has. The one that takes place after a battle, when he's going around and seeing who died. Then he sees a smaller figure at the end (all dead bodies are covered in white blankets). When he goes to see who it is, he find out that it was Hiccup, and Hiccup had been killed in battle.

Toothless had heard him telling this to Gobber. That's how he knew the nightmare. He also knew that every time Stoick had a nightmare, he would always look in the door and check on Hiccup in the morning, just to make sure he and Toothless were still there.

Toothless heard him coming, so he laid down in his usual spot on the floor at the foot of the bed. He closed his eyes and pretended to be asleep.

The door opened a little bit. Toothless stayed still until he decided he wanted Stoick to close the door.

Toothless gave a big, toothless yawn, then blinked his eyes open (as if he had actually been asleep) and stretched like a cat. The door closed.

Toothless immediately sat bolt upright and looked at Hiccup. If his dad paid any attention, he would have known something was wrong. Here's why: Hiccup was lying on his back. The only time he sleeps like that is when he's injured or sick. Or both. Toothless figured that Hiccup didn't like sleeping on his back because he had woken up that way to find his foot missing. Things like that leave people scarred. Also, because he was asthmatic, it was sometimes hard for him to breathe when he was lying on his back.

Toothless also noticed that the fever Hiccup had last night hadn't broken, because his face was flushed (from a distance, you couldn't tell in his dark room) and he was shaking. Hiccup started coughing again, which supported the theory that he was sick.

About 10 minutes later, Hiccup's eyes fluttered open.

"Hey Toothless. What did I miss?"

"Not much. I know Camicazi's gonna ask you how you feel when she gets over here, so I'll just ask for her. _How ya' feeling?_"

Once Hiccup stopped laughing at Toothless's Camicazi impersonation, he said: "I can feel my legs again, but they feel like melted metal, and if I tried to stand up, I think I would fall flat on my face. Uh, I think Camicazi was right about me getting sick. I know my fever's back."

Toothless smiled. "It never went away." He then walked over to the window and stuck his head out. He said something to someone that Hiccup couldn't hear or see. After a minute, he pulled back in and snapped the window closed.

"Expect Camicazi to be over here in a few minutes. I just sent a Terror to go tell her you're awake," said Toothless.

"Okay, but I'll probably have to repeat myself."

Toothless laughed, then asked: "What do you plan on doing after she leaves?"

Hiccup smiled weakly. "Absolutely nothing..."

**THE END (for now)**

_A/N: I finished! OMG, thank you everyone who reviewed and read this story! I'll try and post that one-shot as soon as I can, and then I'll work on the sequel, along with some other stories. So... I guess that's it then. See ya' in my next story!_

_-Qille out!_


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